


Forgotten Years

by CMAeris



Series: World with Two Sons [5]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman Beyond, Teen Titans, Zeta Project
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Drama, Family, Friendship, Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-03-11
Updated: 2012-03-11
Packaged: 2017-11-01 19:01:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 26,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/360172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CMAeris/pseuds/CMAeris
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The lost of a family. Ten years of not knowing. Ten years of coping.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Dear Old Butler

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place the ten years in between chapters 6 and 7 of Nights of Tomorrow.

** Prologue: Visitors at the Cave **

****

                  He caught wind that Red Robin, the former boy wonder, had gotten his hand on the motherbox. No doubt, he was trying to bring their late _dad_ back from the dead. If he were anyone else, he would snort in disbelief—bring the dead back to life, yeah right. But then again, he wasn’t just anyone else. He died once. No one could question the possibility of the dead returning to life.

                  But enough of that, he didn’t break into the manor to have this conversation. It was three in the morning, a time when the whole family was out on patrol. Alfred was nowhere to be seen, but it doesn’t mean their dear butler couldn’t walk in any moment. He had to work fast.

                  “What are you doing here Red Hood?” The unfamiliar voice made him turn defensively.

                  It wasn’t Grayson, it wasn’t Drake and it wasn’t Alfred.

                  “I could say the same to you.” Jason spoke to the emptiness of the cave. “Don’t you know it’s rude to talk to people without showing your face?”

                  “Don’t you know it’s rude to break into people’s homes?”

                  “Touché.” Jason cautiously walked about the cave as he searched for the voice.

                  “What are you doing here Red Hood?” The stranger asked again.

                  “Christmas shopping.” He replied sarcastically. “Are you here to join the shopping spree?”

                  The cave was silent. It grated on his nerves, who was this bastard? Jason turned sharply when he spotted a kid donned in a black body suit with a red bat streaked across his chest with a full bat cowl atop his head. It was not the hell spawn.

                  “As if the demon brat wasn’t enough, he has to take another kid under his wing?” He growled in annoyance. “What are you supposed to be? Batbrat?”

                  “I’m Batboy, and I don’t take orders from the likes of him. I work alone.” The other replied.

                  “Tsk.” Red Hood clucked his tongue with a scowl. “They really need to up the security, anyone could get in nowadays.” He pulled out his guns in a lazed manner. “Sorry kid, nothing against you, but these idiots needs to know there’s a major security leak. No hard feelings.”

                  “Same here.” Batboy said with a change in stance. “Sic’im.”

                  A loud bark came from the side, Jason cursed as a massive black dog charged at him with fangs bearing. He quickly dodged out of the way as the dog tried to clamp down on his arm. While he was busy with the dog, Batboy darted towards the experimental area where the motherbox sat.

                  “Fuck!” Jason cursed again as he sent a sharp kick to the dog’s side, the dog whimpered as he fell.  Jason rushed towards the boy frantically. He couldn’t let the kid take the only chance for Bruce to come back.

                  By the time he reached the other, the portal opened. He cursed angrily as he jumped after Batboy, he fully expected the little snot ran off with the box. Little did he know, the other dropped the item as he disappeared through the light. The portal stayed open for a moment longer before the box shattered to pieces on the ground.  The cave was in darkness and the two were gone.

 

** Dear Old Butler  **

 

                  Maintenance around the manor and the cave was part of Alfred’s regular responsibilities in addition to cooking, cleaning and caring for his remaining masters. But the dear butler was not as young as he used to be. What he could normally do in minutes now took him longer and tired him easily. He first noticed this when his young masters Damian and Terry ran about the manor, their violent games of tag and their unbreakable perseverance to prove their father’s innocence. Just watching them exhausted him. Though the manor had never been livelier before they came.

                  After the death of Bruce and Terry he lost a spring to his step. The family had noticed and it wouldn’t be long before they stepped in and do something about it. He caught snippets of their conversations about lightening his workload. It warmed his old heart that they worry for him, he much rather have them spend their time resting and preparing for their nightly duties. He would hate to see any one of them in a coffin and buried. His old heart couldn’t take anymore if he were to lose another one from the family.

                  Four am, the family should be finished with the last of their patrols and returning soon. Alfred stashed the dried plates and glasses into the cabinets before he removed and folded his apron neatly at the counter. With a sigh, he turned to walk out of the kitchen and towards the study. If he wanted to greet them as they returned, he better start walking. His body wasn’t what it used to be.

                  His footsteps clacked softly in the silent halls then later in the cave. As he descended he noticed something odd. Ace was in the cave, normally he sat outside ever so watchful. It was strange to see him in the cave since Terry’s death. As he neared, he noted the dog lay next to an odd pile. Upon a closer inspection, he realized it was the motherbox Tim slaved over fixing and deciphering in hopes of getting Bruce back.

                  “Oh dear.” Alfred murmured quietly. “I do hope you didn’t break this.”

                  The dog’s ears flopped. The old butler sighed as he knelt down to gather the pieces, his legs protested, but he couldn’t leave it in such a state for Tim to return to.

                  It was an hour before the family returned. They looked exhausted. Damian was already in the process of stripping out of his gear when he jumped out of the bat-mobile. Tim on the other hand headed straight for the bat-computer.

                  “Welcome home.” Alfred greeted as Dick pulled off his cowl and ran a hand through his hair.

                  “Thanks Alfred.” Dick paused. “… Why is Ace here? Doesn’t he normally stay upstairs?”

                  “There was an accident, I’m afraid.” Alfred’s words paused both Tim and Damian in their tracks as they turned their attention to their old butler.

                  “What happened?” Dick asked with a hint of worry in his voice.

                  “I must apologize for my clumsiness, while cleaning, I accidentally knocked the motherbox Master Tim was working on, onto the ground. I’m afraid it’s in shambles. My utmost apologies.” He said.

                  “That’s all?” Damian rolled his eyes. “Tim could always fix it, why are you worrying about this stuff Alfred?” He continued to strip out of his gear and tossed it onto a workbench. Alfred secretly smiled at the boyish habit Damian has, but he could see the tenseness on Tim’s face.

                  “It’s all right Alfred, don’t worry yourself over it.” Tim said stiffly.

                  Damian let out a yawn as ventured up the steps. He needed sleep and nothing was going to stop him at this point.

                  “You didn’t break it did you Alfred?” Dick said once Damian was gone. “You’re covering for Ace.”

                  Alfred smiled sadly. “Master Damian does not know how difficult it is for Master Tim to do what he does with the motherbox. If he knew, Ace would be skewered in no time.” Ace padded next to the butler and nudged his face into the old man’s hand. “And Ace is what we have left of Master Terry. It’d be sad to see him gone.”

                  Tim sighed sadly. “I understand…” There was a lingering _but_ in his voice, but he said nothing to the matter. “Where are the remains now?”

                  “I’ve placed them in storage, you can work with it tomorrow after you rest Master Tim.” Alfred said as he ushered for the remaining two to leave the cave and return to their room for some well-deserved rest.

                  “We can take care of ourselves Alfred.” Dick smiled gently. “Why don’t you go rest? It’s late.”

                  “Yeah.” Tim added. “We’ll head up once we change, get some rest Alfred.”

                  It was impossible to refuse their request. His old bones needed the rest and he was bound to resume his duties for the following day. Though, when it came time for him to do his chores, he realized the workload lessened. The cave was meticulously cleaned, the vehicles were maintained and the repair work was less than he expected. He found notes on preparation and plans for the monthly charity parties and a strayed attempt in tending to Ace’s needs.

                  Their sentiments were sweet, but they had little experience with chores they rarely touched. The cleaning was mediocre, he phantom a guess that Tim was the one who attempted to clean the manor. Alfred knew Tim was from a well off family, he was rare that the teen would ever needed to touch cleaning supplies. The party planning was obvious Dick’s work, too much fun and galore without much care in the class and grace that’s needed for a formal event. As for Ace, the chance of Damian being the one tending to the dog was high. If the mountain pile of food and lack of attention to Ace’s daily routines was any indication.

                  Alfred tried to take matters into his own hands, but Dick insisted they wanted to lessen his load. He had no choice but to teach each of them how the household worked. With Dick he taught the oldest Robin how to prepare a grand scale event for socialite society. From the invitation to the type of place setting on the table, it would be years before he managed to pull off what Alfred did on a regular basis. It amused him to no end whenever Dick came to him in a panic for advice. At first, he worried that it would be too stressful for the current Batman, but his worries were naught. Dick easily dealt with the stress on a good patrol.

                  Tim proved to be no trouble at all. While inexperienced, the third Robin was a fast learner and an excellent student. He easily picked up whatever he was told and repeated the actions flawlessly. Damian was another story all together. Maintenance around the cave was a simple task for him. Gears, engines and anything that dealt with mechanics was his playground. He could clean and repair them with little instruction.

                  Tending to an animal was a different matter. With Ace house trained, he needn’t worry about the house becoming a potential litter box. The food distribution could be easily remedied, but it was grooming Ace that proved to be Damian’s downfall. Once a week, Ace was designated to have a bath. To Damian, fighting an army of the Gotham thugs was easier compared to bathing the dog. 

                  “Quit moving you stupid mutt!” Damian growled under his breath as he pulled the dog back to scrub and hose him down. Ace whined and shook his body violently. Soapsuds and water flew everywhere and drenched Damian in bath water. “Argh!” He growled in annoyance as the dog attempted to flee again.

                  Alfred held back a smile as he stepped in to help his young charge. “You’re doing it wrong Master Damian. The more you make him uncomfortable, the more he’ll resist you when you try to bathe him. Sponge please.”

                  Damian grumbled and handed the soapy sponge to Alfred’s waiting hand. It took a few attempts, but eventually the young Robin managed to bathe Ace correctly. And in a rare instance, the dog had taken a liking to the violent boy.

                  With everyone assisting him around the manor, he felt a heavy load off his shoulders, but his heart grew weary. He would not live forever, one day he will pass on and these boys would be on their own without him to serve them, to guide them. He needed to find a replacement… or at least trustworthy individuals that the family could rely on when he was gone.

                  Days, months and years, he spent searching for the right candidate he could trust his boys to, but he couldn’t seem to find someone suitable. He worried for them each time they were hurt, each time he found the simplest of chores difficult. Who would watch over them when he’s gone? Each time he asked this question, each time it was left unanswered.

 

 


	2. Missing His Boy

                  His boy was gone for nearly four snowfalls. It was so different without his small smiles and his affectionate hand, but he would have to do without his boy. The human pack his boy left behind was sad, especially the youngest one that goes by his boy’s den everyday.

                  That boy hasn’t smiled since the old alpha and his boy disappeared. Don’t get him wrong, even though the human pup hasn’t been happy, it didn’t mean he didn’t growl and defy the new alpha. It meant little when it was no different from puppy squabble. More than once, when he passed him at his boy’s den, he could see the sullen look on the young human’s face and the lack luster energy in his movements. He missed his boy too.

                  As time passed on, the human den looked darker and distant as the elder human slowed. He was old and he worried for the day when he stopped moving. Even so, the old human never neglected him. He would always leave food out and groom him every so often. He was treated well, but it wasn’t the same. The old human wasn’t his boy.

                  Krypto, the alien mutt, lost his boy too. The other lost his boy sometime before his and frequently visited when his boy was still here. Nowadays, he came less and less. It was for the best, that alien mutt was too much like a pup sometimes.

                  The light came and went. The new alpha was always busy with his shiny lights, he smelled of sweat and smoke, while the old human continued to scavenge and hunt for their meals. As for the young pup, he smelled of dirt and metal. The den was in sorrow it wasn’t until the other human returned that life dared to resume. Even so, the sullen look never left the boy’s face.

                  Not long after, intruders attacked. The humans fought and protected their home. Ace joined in the battle by with the traps his boy left around the den. The same ones he used on Krypto on occasion when the alien mutt was out of hand. They won, but little changed after the battle. They returned their routines with the exception of one human with female scents on him.

                  It never felt right for him to stay in the den without his boy there. He slept outside when the weather was kind. It was then he heard a movement on the grounds. His ears perked as he woke and searched the grounds. He saw no one, but he knew someone was there. He pounced up as he gave a warning growl.

                  A familiar scent, one he hasn’t smelled in ages. He barked happily when he realized who’s scent it was.

                  It was his boy!

                  He padded around, whining quietly as he searched for his boy. His tail wagged excitedly he wanted to see him, but there was nothing. He whined as his ears drooped. Where was his boy?

                  A familiar hand touched his head. He glanced up excitedly but still he saw nothing.

                  “Hi Ace.” He heard the soft whisper at his ear as the hand continued to pet him and scratch his ear.

                  His boy was back! He wasn’t gone! He gave a playful growl as he pressed his hand against the invisible hand. He wanted to pounce his boy, to rub up against him, to shower him with affectionate licks. But all that would have to wait. There was someone else on the grounds. He stood firmly as he turned towards the source of the noise.

                  “What is it Ace?” His boy asked him.

                  He growled. It was the man that hurt his pack.

                  “Easy Ace.” His boy patted him calmly. “Take me to him.”

                  And he did, he took his boy into the dark den down below with the noisy flying creatures. There his boy made him stay as he ran off to anger the man. He wanted to jump out to help his boy, but he couldn’t see where his boy was. The man growled. He was annoyed. His boy appeared, he looked very different from what he remembered him was he wearing fake skin like the other humans? The man lost his patience. He pulled out a dangerous thing and pointed at his boy.

                  “Sic’im!” His boy shouted out before he charged at the man with a feral growl. He couldn’t let his boy get hurt!

                  While he kept the man busy, his boy ran off deeper into the darkness. He felt a change in the air before the man yelled. Before he knew it, the man kicked him away and ran into the light where his boy disappeared. He struggled to get up, but by then the light was gone.

                   His boy was gone again.

                   He whined pathetically as he padded towards the lingering scent of his boy. Whatever this thing was, it was in pieces. He whined again as he lay down, his side was still in pain from the kick.

                   He wasn’t sure how long it was before the old human came down, but when he did he could hear the worry and disapproval in his voice. He couldn’t understand him, but he knew whatever this thing was, it was important to the pack. The human that carried the scent of females was upset.

                  “If he knew, Ace would be skewered in no time.” The old human murmured quietly.

                  He padded up to the old human and nudged his head under his hand. He was sorry to see the old human sad, sorry that he couldn’t see his boy before he disappeared again. The human was old and tired. He really wanted to see him happy. And the rest of the pack felt the same.

                  Though… he does not approve of the human pup’s methods.

                  “Quit moving you stupid mutt!” The pup growled at him.

                  He wiggled and snapped at him. He didn’t like how the pup was grooming him. He was rough and scratched at all the wrong places. He was nothing like the old human. Ace shook furiously and drenched the human pup.

                  “Argh!” The other growled.

                  The old human laughed at his attempt and took over the grooming again. It was a while before the pup managed to groom him properly. And boy was he good. He had to show the boy he was good. The next time the boy groomed him properly he made certain to shower him with rubs and kisses.

                  “What are you doing mutt?” He said in annoyance as he tried to push him away. 

                  The old man chuckled.

                  He was happy!

                  “Master Damian, that’s how dogs show you they like you.”

                  He continued to rub up against the human pup until he placed a hesitant hand over his eyes and rubbed his head. He wasn’t his boy, but he’ll do for now.

 


	3. Lost Little Bird

                  A blast echoed the air as the portal spat out Jason Todd. Before he even touched the ground he tucked into a roll and jumped to his feet with his guns held out defensively. “All right kid, give back the… the fuck?”

                  He was no longer in the cave and the intruder was nowhere in sight. He stood in a wasteland, rows and rows of buildings in ruins, windows broken, scorched marks etched onto its sides. The marks looked like… bodies. He pushed off from the ground. It looked eerily familiar. He couldn’t image why until one ruin in the distance stopped him cold. 

                  At the center of the city where it always stood was Wayne Enterprises decayed beyond repair. The broken W.E atop the building was still recognizable. This wasteland was Gotham.

                  “How…?” Jason was lost for words as he shook his head in disbelief. “How could this happen? Why…?” He pulled off his red helmet, his face still masked with a domino mask. His breath shook as he closed his eyes it was painful to see Gotham in ruins. “WHY?” He gave a tortured yell as he raised his cracked helmet to smash it to the ground, but a voice stopped him.

                  “You want to know why this happened to Gotham?” The intruder spoke.

                  “Where are you, kid?” Jason glared to the empty air around him and raised his gun cautiously.

                  His question was ignored. “This is what happens if Batman killed the Joker after your death.”

                  “What?” He said in disbelief. “How? How could the death of one man destroy Gotham? It makes no sense!”

                  The other was silent.

                  “Just what did the Joker do that was so important that it could’ve prevented this?” Jason snapped when the other didn’t reply. “ANSWER ME!”

                  “…He interrupted a government project. One that was meant to destroy Batman.” He replied

                  “… He saved Batman?”

                  “Inadvertently, yes.”

                  “…He saved…” Jason’s shoulders shook as he gave a broken laugh.

                  “What is so funny?” The voice asked.

                  Jason pressed a hand against his eyes. “I wanted him to kill him so badly. I did everything to make it hell for them for not killing him!” His laugh became strained. “Well, I’ll be damned. I get what I wanted in this world, but it fucking destroyed Gotham. Isn’t that nice?” 

                  “…” The voice was silent again.

                  “… It doesn’t matter.” He muttered, defeated. His foot mechanically moved one in front of the other as he dragged himself through the ruins. 

                  He didn’t know how long he walked. It must’ve been hours. This alley, that alley, every part of Gotham he used in the past, everything was in ashes and ruins. Every now and then he would spot grass peeking through the cracks of broken concrete.

“What are you doing?” The sun was over his head when the kid spoke again.

                  “… What do you want? You’ve took the mother box already and I can’t see you to do shit.” He griped.

                  A moment later the little intruder materialized before him with his arms crossed. “The box is back at the cave.”

                  “Back in the…” He gritted his teeth. “So this was a ruse for you to show me this world’s decrepit Gotham?”

                  The other turned his head aside and sighed. “You should really read more. Given Arkham houses a handful of Lewis Carroll fans, one would think you’d know better than to chase weird creatures into portals.” He paused and grinned. “But yes, I did wanted you to see this.”

                   Jason’s shoulders shook as his laugh echoed the barren city bitterly. He laughed until he was out of breath, laughed until his head felt light from the lack of oxygen. 

                  “… Why are you laughing?” The other was disturbed. “Is the destruction of Gotham that funny to you?”

Jason settled down sadly and opened his arms, welcoming whatever scrutiny or violence to his person. “I’m laughing at the miserable irony of it all. To think… I actually wanted to save Gotham.” He dropped his arms and sighed.

                  “… Why are you telling me this?” Jason asked cautiously.

                  The other shrugged. “It’s my fault that you’re in this world instead of ours. Do you want to go back?”

                  Jason was silent for a moment before a wry grin touched his lips. “… You’re an odd little kid. I chased you to another dimension trying to kill you and you offer to help me?”

                  Said kid tilted his head curiously. “Is that a problem?”

                  “Heh.” Jason snorted in amusement. “All right.” He flourished a hand. “Lead the way kid.”

                  “Sure, but after I get some sleep.” He held back a yawn. “It was 4 am when we left the cave, I’m a bit sleepy.”

                  Jason stared at him in disbelief was this kid fucking with him? But no, the kid really was tired. It wasn’t like he had anything to do in this dimension. He had nothing to lose.

“Fine, go sleep.” He said.

                  They found shelter in the ruins with a roof over their heads. It was just like before Bruce adopted him, sleeping in abandoned buildings hiding from the rain and cold.  He was surprised to see the kid curl up and the corner and sleeping in the matter of seconds. He was a street rat just like him. Drake or Grayson would’ve tried to dust the area and sleep on their capes, but the kid just slept without a care.

                  He certainly had guts. He fell asleep with a known killer not even four feet away from him. If he couldn’t scare a little kid like him, how was he able to scare the criminals of Gotham with what he was doing? Was his help even needed?

                  After an hour of silence the angst was getting to him. The kid still slept, but his small form shivered from the drafty grounds. The ruins did little to shield them from the autumn winds, the only certainty they had was shelter from the rain, if it rained. Jason sighed through his nose as he unclasped his cape and draped it over the kid. He could keep warm better compared to the kid.

o.o.o.o.o

                  Hours after he drifted off, the soft shuffling of noises alerted him the kid was awake.

                  “Awake?” Jason asked without opening his eyes.

                  “Yes.” The kid replied as he bundled the cape and tossed it back to its owner.

                  Neither of them spoke for hours as they traveled out of Gotham. There were no cars, no trucks, nothing. All roads to Gotham were sealed off. The two spent the majority of their time maneuvering through overgrown shrubbery. When they finally reached some semblance of civilization, it was a suburb. The kid was quick to find a garden hose and took a long drink. 

                  “You’re going to get sick drinking from that.” Jason commented.

                  “Don’t have money on me and I don’t feel like stealing.” He drank until he was satisfied.

                  “Suit yourself.” Jason crossed his arms and glanced to the night sky. “How much longer before we get there?”

                  “Until we get to Metropolis at least.” He replied as he turned the water off.

                  “Are you always this quiet?” Jason grumbled in annoyance as they continued on their way.

                  “Nothing to talk about.” Batboy shrugged.

                  “No questions? No wise cracks? Anything?”

                  “Not interested.” The boy said bluntly as they walked.

                  The silence drove him nuts. “Taaaalk!” Jason huffed in annoyance.

                  He could see the little Batboy struggling to hold onto his composure. Jason sighed and crossed his arms as they continued on their way to Metropolis. He knew he sounded childish.

                  “So how did you get so familiar with this world? Obviously, you’ve been here before. Did the monitors send you here to help them or something?” Jason asked. He needed to hear something, anything. Silence was his worse enemy.

                  “Or something.” He glanced back curiously. “What’s a monitor?”

                   “… You really don’t know what it is?” The former Robin looked at him skeptically.

                  “If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking now would I?”

                  “… You sure you’re from my world?” Jason paused.

                  “Yes! I’m from your world!” The kid replied exasperatedly. “It’s not like dimension traveling is all that rare in our world! Members of the Justice League probably end up in a different dimension every other week!”

                   “True…” A thoughtful look crossed his face as if he recalled something.

                  “So, what’s a monitor?” The kid asked again.

                  “It’s a—” Jason was about to answer when a loud grumble caught their ears. “I’m guessing you’re hungry.”

                  “It’s been more than twelve hours since I last ate.” He retorted as he glanced around. “We should probably find something to eat before we continue, there’s still quite some way before we get there.” He spotted a grocer and moved towards the store, but paused when the Jason followed him. “Why are you still here? Go get your own food.”

                  Jason raised a brow at him, his domino mask crinkled at his movement. “You seriously think that I’d trust you not to ditch me if I went off looking for food.”

                  Batboy sighed. “Fine! You’ll still have to get yours after I’m done! I’m not looking for food for you too.”

                  “As if I need a snot-nosed brat like you to find food for me.” He snorted.

                  Between the two, they took an hour scavenging through the garbage of the grocery stores and delis in the area. Food that was a barely a day old or a day over expiration were gathered. From bread to canned goods, they found themselves atop a roof as they sorted through their findings.

                  “I’ll trade you a melted chocolate bar for ham.” The kid said as he danced the crinkled package at Jason.

                  “I’ll give you extra if you add the bruised apple.” Jason replied as he glanced through what else the other had. Scavenging, trading food, it was the norm among street rats. Neither gave it a second thought with their trades as they ate.

                  “Do you still want to know what a monitor is?” Jason asked as they ate.

                  Batboy perked up and turned to him intently. He was interested.

                  “I guess they could be counted as realm guardians of sorts. There’s supposed to be one in each dimension watching and guarding. At least until one went nuts and tried to destroy all the other worlds.” He shrugged. “I named one of them Bob.”

                  “… So… did this Bob monitor take you to other dimensions?” He asked as he took a bite out of his ham.

Jason waved his half eaten chocolate bar. “It was a wild goose chase hunting down Ray Palmer. Do you know how annoying it was to find him? Not to mention there was probably a version of him in every world. The man could shrink to a size the eye can’t even see!”

                  “Hmm…” The kid hummed as he continued to chew. “How were the other dimensions? Any major differences? Vampires? Magic?”

                  “What are you a sci-fi geek? There was a number of them it’ll take forever to go through each of them. So how did you end up here?”

                  “Someone here needed my help.”

                  “Who?”

                  “…Batman from this universe.” He replied.

                  Jason stopped eating and turned to the smaller boy in surprise. “He’s… still alive? But Gotham’s gone! Dead! How is he still alive?”

                  “…I never said no one survived.” Batboy murmured behind a dark banana. “Who else would need my help to avenge Gotham?”

                  It finally clicked. “… We’re going to him now for help aren’t we?” He said quietly.

                  The kid glanced to him with a piece of banana poking out from inside his cheek. “Are you scared to meet him?”

                  “Psh.” He snorted. “As if I’m terrified of the old man.” Unknown to him, the kid spotted a small smile in his show of annoyance.

                  “You’re happy to see him aren’t you?” He grinned as he finished his banana.

                  “Shut up.” Jason punched his shoulder lightly.

                  After their meal, they left for Metropolis. Dawn neared and they needed to get out of public sight. He could tell the kid knew where he was going, if he were anyone else, he would’ve had trouble following through the back alleys and the fence hopping. He expected a cave, a hideout, something elaborate and password encrypted. But to his surprise, the kid took him to an apartment building… to a completely normal building in a middle-class neighborhood.

                  “…You’re shitting me.” He said bluntly to the kid.

                  Batboy ignored him and rang the bell. The next thing he knew, the kid was gone. The door ripped open and he was enveloped in the strong arms of the hero of Metropolis.

                  “Jason you’re alive!” The man said excitedly.

                  “Fucking kid!” Jason squirmed uncomfortably. “I thought you said you were taking me to Bruce! Not the god damn blue boy scout!”

                  “Kid?” The man of steel paused in his excitement and looked around likely with his x-ray vision and whatever visions he had. “Oh! You’re alive too!” He knelt down and latched an arm over an empty space with a fond hug. Jason could feel another figure pressed up against him as the man resumed hugging.

                  “Claaaark!” The kid’s voice came from the empty space. “Stop trying to suffocate us, we need a way to get home!”

                  The man smiled as he walked back into the apartment with them still in his arms. “How’s Conner? Is he doing well?”

                  “He’s fine, can you put us down please?”

                  Jason sighed in annoyance as he found himself trapped in the pleasantries between an invisible Batboy and an enthusiastic Superman.

                  “All right, either someone drugged me or someone killed me and put me into purgatory.” He muttered.

                  Clark laughed. “I see you still have your dark sense of humor. Sorry for ignoring you, why don’t I leave you with someone you’re more comfortable with?”

                  The man promptly carried him to one of rooms and placed him down in front of a familiar cowl face. With Dick Grayson as Batman for the past three years, he almost forgot how intimidating Batman looked.

                  “Bruce.” He knew the man before him wasn’t his mentor, but he couldn’t help the surge of happiness at seeing the man again.

                  A scowl crossed the dark knight’s face as he grabbed the red helmet and smashed it to the ground.  “Of all the names, why _his_?”

                  “Because you—he didn’t kill him.” He crossed his arms and turned away. “…But I guess it was a good thing for Gotham he didn’t…”

                  “He was stronger than I was… As should you.” The man looked stoic as ever, but he could feel that he was upset. “What drove you to killing? Jason, what drove you to kill a defenseless child?” 

                  Trust Bruce to make anyone feel ashamed and guilty. “You were gone.” He murmured quietly. “Gotham was plunging to hell. Dick and Drake weren’t aware of that. The kid… he was supposed to be a warning to them.”

                  “You’re trying to justify yourself?” Batman roared at him.

                  He looked straight into his eyes. “I’m a monster. I know. You don’t have to tell me or remind me. I know what I did and why I did it. You want to know why I took up _his_ name? Because I’m doing what they can’t! What they couldn’t!”

                  “And what have you achieved Jason?” Batman glowered at him.

                   Jason was silent. “Nothing.” He whispered. “Each time I killed, two takes its place.” He barked with a harsh laugh. “I’m not you! I’m not Grayson! And I’m damn well not Drake!  I…” He stared at his own hands. “I can’t turn back. And do you want to know what drives me crazy?” He buried his head in his hands. “Each time I do this, he offered to help me. Save me. Doesn’t that idiot know I’ve already gone too far?”

                  “You’re punishing yourself for your guilt.” Batman said solemnly. “Jason… Why do we fall?”

                  He laughed bitterly. “Bruce, don’t try to philosophize this. I murdered a kid. A fucking kid! He didn’t have weapon on him. All he was carrying were flowers. FUCKING FLOWERS! How do you redeem someone who killed children? I didn’t just shoot him once. I unloaded a whole fucking round on him! All he did was annoy me! I had no right to kill him!”

                  “Then what would make you forgive yourself?”

                  “I don’t know!” Jason snapped. “How does anyone forgive a murderer? Because I damn well haven’t forgiven the fucker for killing me! How could anyone I killed forgive me? I don’t deserve to be forgiven!”

                  A smile crept onto the dark knight’s face. “The fact you’re here talking to me shows that you are forgiven.”

                  Confusion crossed his face. “How the fuck am I forgiven?”

                  “There are only three people who knows I live here aside from Superman. Among the three, two are from your world. And one was killed by you.”

                  Jason frowned in thought. Killed by him? But the person who brought him here was a kid he couldn’t be older than… His eyes widened. “He’s… But how could he? I killed him! Why would he…” Utter shock and confusion crossed his face. He couldn’t phantom how could he possibly be forgiven.

                  A flicker at the corner of his eye and Batboy reappeared at the door. He tackled Batman in a hug. The man patted his head before he returned his gaze to Jason. “Terry, tell Jason why you forgive him.”

                  Batboy, Terry shrugged as he broke away from his hug. “There’s really no point in searching for revenge. I died, but I’m alive now. It was a second chance. I would be wasting my time if I were to plot out your demise. Besides…” He grinned with a joking air. “I had a chance to see dad again _and_ I told on you like I said I would. What’s even better is this cool costume Bruce made for me.”

                  Jason stared at him in disbelief. “You are one strange kid.”

                  “Well, if I didn’t take my own advice, I’d be a hypocrite now wouldn’t I?” He tilted his head curiously.

                  “I see.” The former Robin sighed. “So how are we getting home?”

                  Terry turned to Batman thoughtfully. “The cuffs we used last time was right, but it was about ten to fifteen years off.”

                  “As long as it’s the right dimension, it could be adjusted.” The dark knight reasoned as he went to retrieve said items.

                  Jason stepped out of the room as the two perfected their way home. When he walked out he was promptly attacked with another affection hug from Clark.

                  “What the—!” He struggled against the hug. “Why the hell does he live with you?”

                  The man smiled happily. “I’m so glad that you came to visit!”

                  Jason struggled a moment longer before giving into the hug. “I should’ve stayed with them.”

                  “Just seeing you made Bruce very happy. Dick hasn’t spoken to him in ages.” Clark said as he released him and placed him down. “It’s been very lonely for him. If not, I don’t think he’d ever agree to live anywhere close to me.”

                  “… What happened?” Jason asked quietly. “They both lost Gotham, shouldn’t they be closer? Dick’s his golden boy! Why would he abandon Bruce?”

                  “Because he blames Bruce for Gotham’s demise.” Clark answered as he walked towards another room. “I have something to show you.”

                  “…” Jason glanced back briefly at the door before he followed him.

                  Upon entering he found Clark on the ground and pried open a hidden compartment under the floorboards. He stood up a moment later with a metallic sphere in his hand. “Bruce received this after Gotham was destroyed… sent by the person who ordered the destruction.”

                  The sphere glowed before the whole room was turned into one of the many streets of Gotham. Covered in smog and darkness, it look bleaker than it was when they were there.

                  _“Hello Batman.”_ The voice sent chills down his spine. It sounded oddly familiar. _“I’m sure you heard the destruction of Gotham by now, but I thought you would actually like to see how it happened. No need to thank me. Enjoy.”_

                  The images that followed after was a slaughter. Civilians ran, but were caught in the flurry of bullets or consumed by flames. Superboy, Wonder Woman, Flash and a number of other familiar faces, donned in a strange uniforms slaughtered and destroyed whatever was in sight. 

                  Jason watched as Superboy plunged his arm into Robin’s stomach, his arm pulled out innards and intestines as he pulled out. Tim fell to his knees as the super clone flew off and left Robin to his death. The next was Batgirl, unlike Robin she suffered a slow death as Wonder Woman strangled her. Even commissioner Gordon was skewered through the skeletons of the buildings’ ruins. One by one, the heroes in Gotham was taken down. When he saw Superboy approach Nightwing, he felt his fists clenched. There was no sound, but he could see how furious the former Robin looked. He roared at Superboy, threw weapons and attacked him, but he never got close as Superman appeared and pulled him back.

                  The two traded angry words, but eventually the man of steel hauled him up and out of Gotham as the uniformed group wasted the city. He couldn’t watch anymore.

                  _“It really was a pity that your first Robin got away._ ” The voice chuckled. _“But no matter, those who survives won’t do any better. Knowing that others didn’t make it would just eat them away. Oh, and one more thing. I know how much you adore your butler.”_

                  Jason closed his eyes. “No…” He whispered painfully. “Not Alfred.”

                  _“I made sure to have sound for this one.”_ He laughed.

                  Jason placed his hands to his ears as Alfred’s screams echoed the room. The light faded away as the recording ended.

                  “Dick hasn’t spoken to Bruce since. The only other time was when Terry and Conner came to help us. They haven’t seen this video. We lied and said Dick wasn’t there that day, it’d be too painful if they were to ask him about what happened.” Clark said quietly as he hid away the sphere.

                  He was speechless. There were no words to describe the agony he felt at their deaths, at Gotham’s destruction. He needed to speak to Dick. “…Do you have his number? I want to talk to Grayson.”

                  Clark smiled as he pulled out his cell phone and handed it to him. “He’s on speed dial number five.”

                  Jason flipped it open and pressed it as he left the room for privacy.

                  “Hi Superman!” A female voice greeted.

                  “Get the man-whore Grayson on the phone. Tell him Jason Todd is on the line.” He said bluntly.

                  Within moments Dick answered. “Did you come back to life? Or are you visiting from another dimension?”

                  “You’re still an ass and a man-whore regardless which dimension you’re from.” Jason replied as he stared out the window and into Metropolis.

                  “What do you want Jason?” Dick asked.

                  “Why did you abandon Bruce?”

                  “Why?” The other hissed. “It’s because of him that Gotham is gone! It’s because of him that Alfred and everyone else is dead!”

                  “That was out of his control.” He reasoned. “You know how he is. He’s blaming himself as much as you’re blaming him! He’s freaking living with the big blue boy scout! Do you know how far he has to fall to submit himself to living with that man?”

                  “Get to why I should care.” He said coldly.

                  “He’s family! He’s your family! He took you in he raised you! He god damn cared for you! And you abandon him? What is wrong with you?”

                  “He’s a murderer, he deserves to be alone. The fact Clark is living with him only shows how kind and generous he is to deal with that man.”

                  “Are you listening to yourself Grayson?” Jason snapped.

                  “It’s because he killed Joker that this all happened! If he didn’t kill Joker, the Terry from this world might’ve turned out like yours! Not the fucking maniac that killed everyone!”

                  Jason was silent. There was a chance that the kid could’ve gone off the end?

                 “I have all the family I need now. I don’t need him!”

                 “He _is_ your family!” Jason snapped.

                 “We’re _adopted_ Jason. Gotham was nothing but a vault of misery! And if you’re smart, you’ll give it up and find a family somewhere far from it when you get back to your world. Either you’ll die or those you care about will die there.”

                 “Fuck you circus boy.” Jason growled and snapped the phone shut and tossed it aside.

                 “… Hypocrite.” Batboy’s voice drew his attention away from the window.

                 “What do you want kid?” He scowled.

                 “You yelled at him for abandoning family, but you did it too. You’re a hypocrite.” He pointed out. 

                 “I have no family.”

                 “And you just prove my point.” Terry crossed his arms.

                 “They’re not my family! I’ve killed! They don’t need a freaking killer!” He argued.

                 “You do know that I’ve killed, the previous Batgirl killed and the current Robin killed right? We were accepted just fine.”

                 “I tried to kill them. I actually _killed_ you!” Jason snapped. “What is wrong with you? With them? I’m not part of the family! Family don’t kill each other!”

                 He shrugged. “We have contingency plans for everyone. Even if you do decide to try to kill us again, I’m sure we’ll have some plan.” He glanced at him for a moment. “…You’re in a slump.”

                 “Slump?” Jason frowned.

                 “You’re a crappy villain and a crappy anti-hero.” He chirped.

                 “What’s that supposed to mean?” Jason scowled.

                 “Simple, as a anti-hero, you created more villains than actually eliminate and as a villain, you make a crappy boss with your minions picked off at every turn. In either front you’re not really good or original. Even the Joker is better at keeping his minions loyal to him.”

                  Jason scowled as he jumped the younger boy and caught him in a headlock. “Like you’re any better, kid? You’re running around in your footie pajamas.” He growled and he delivered a knuckle rub to his head.

                  Terry struggled in his administration. “I’ll have you know that real footie PJs are not bulletproof! ARGH! Clark! Bruce! Help! He’s picking on me!” He whined.

                  Clark’s chuckle could be heard at the door as he watched while Bruce passed by with a casual line. “Jason, leave your little brother alone.”

                  He paused at Bruce’s words… He never thought of the kid as a brother before. In his moment of uncertainty, Terry broke out of his hold and hid behind Clark.

                  “What are you going to do now?” He stuck out his tongue childishly.

                  “Once Clark gets out of the way, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do.” He glared. “I’m going to catch you and…” Without warning he charged at the younger boy. “I’m going to tickle you to submission!”

                   Terry’s eyes widen as he fled from Clark and down the hall. “Bruce!” He cried as he ran, but Jason was quick to catch up and wrestled him to the ground. Within seconds, the apartment was filled with giggles and laughter from the young Batboy.

o.o.o.o.o

                    Between insulting Clark’s cooking, fearing Bruce’s cooking and messing with the young boy, three days passed and the cuffs were ready.

                    “There are some side effects of nausea, but other than that you should be able to get back with no problem.” Bruce explained as they cuffed the transporter on. He lingered on Jason for a moment. “What are you going to do when you get back?”

                    “I can’t turn back, even if the kid forgive me, I’m just not the same person anymore. I’m going to continue to work underground.”

                    Terry scowled. “You’re going to just go back to that? When the current Batman and Robin’s been mind controlled and Red Robin’s been disappearing to who knows where? Even the current Batgirl is a novice!”

                    “Hmph.” Jason snorted. “I said I’m going back to the underground, but I have no intention of helping them. I’m going to destroy them from inside.”

                    “… Do you need some help?” Terry tilted his head curiously.

                     Jason raised a brow. “An alliance?” 

                    He raised a hand to whisper secretively. “I can get you non-lethal weapons from the family.”

                    “… But they don’t know you’re—” Jason paused as a grin touched his lips. “You’re going to steal it from them aren’t you?”

                    The other smiled. “They won’t miss it.”

                    “How do you suppose we meet? Keeping a phone contact would not be wise.” Jason commented.

                    “Your twitter account.” Terry replied cheerily. 

                    “… Wait, how do you know it’s my account?”

                    “I’m good with hacking.”

                    Jason stared at him for a moment before a chuckle filled his lungs.

                    “Ready to go?” Bruce asked them.

                    “Yeah.” Terry replied with a grin.

                    Jason placed a hand on his head between the bat-ears on the cowl. “Yeah, we’re ready.”

 


	4. So Close Yet So Far

                  Morning 10 AM, five hours since he returned from patrol and crashed into his bed. Tim groggily pulled himself up and readied himself for the day. If it was up to him, he would have slept until noon, but today wasn’t about him. Today was all about Damian Wayne—not Robin, Damian.

                  Two months ago, the youngest Robin approached him in Paris and asked for his return to Gotham. At the time, all he saw was anger and resentment towards him, for taking the Robin mantle, for taking his place in Gotham. There was little reason for him to believe that the brat wonder wasn’t plotting against him.

                  Who could blame him? Damian tried to kill him, tried to kill Terry and has the superiority complex that could match even the worse of rogues. Only Dick with his big brotherly nature could handle his snide remarks and venomous tantrums. It was hard to see if a heart actually existed in the brat.

                  Yet, in the few weeks he was back, he saw something changed in the youngest Robin. Don’t get him wrong, the scathing words were still there, but somehow it seemed less… vicious.

                  Tim smacked the alarm with a yawn as he rolled out of bed. No snoozing, no sleeping in, he had something to do today. By the time he was washed up and dressed himself, Damian was already in the kitchen done with breakfast and nursed a hot cup of tea in his hands.

                  “Morning.” Tim greeted him as he leaned the crutches for his fake injuries against the counter. He needed them to keep up his façade later. “Are you ready for school?”

                  “…I hate you.” Damian grumbled behind his morning tea.

                   The former Robin grinned. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

                   Unbelievable right? To think the brat wonder would grace himself in the same room with commoners and those he deemed as below him. Yet, it was his yearning for his deceased father and brother that submitted him to humility. Tim had thought it would benefit the younger boy if he supported his thirst of knowledge of his deceased family… but he was wrong.

                   No doubt, Damian drank up the information like a dying man in a desert, but it did little to help him. Tim could see the dissatisfaction on his face. He wanted more than what Tim could give. He wanted the closeness to Bruce, to Terry that Tim shared.

                   It was then that he decided to change how he gave the information. And it helped that Terry made his information such a maze. He would make Damian Wayne interact with people outside his family. He needed peers, peers he couldn’t make as Robin because of his personality issues.  Either he learned to ask others for help or he played by Tim’s rules to get the passwords.

                   “Come on, it’ll be fun.” Tim tried to cheer up the sullen boy. “You’ve never been to school before right? Just think of this as a learning experience.”

                    Damian scowled. “I was educated by the elites.  I don’t need a worthless piece of paper to prove my worth.” 

                   “True, but I doubt any of those teachers of yours were conversationalists.” Tim reasoned.

                   “I don’t need them.” He said bluntly.

                   “Ah, but you do need to interact with people this time around if you want more information on Terry.”

                   “… Why are you doing this to me, Drake? Is it punishment for the attempts on your life?”

                   “At least give it a try before you decide you hate it.” Tim sighed as Alfred came with two packed lunches.

                   “I believe both of you are going to be late if you don’t hurry.” The elderly butler said as he collected Damian’s mug.

                   “I’ll let you drive.” Tim tempted him in song.

                   "…” Damian stared at him in silence for a moment. He debated whether or not he should take the bait. “I doubt the _crippled_ Tim Wayne could drive in his current condition.”

                   Tim shrugged. “We could always have Alfred drive.”

                   “… I get to pick the car.” Damian decided.

                   “Of course.” Tim grinned.

                   Dick made him get his license the moment Damian turned sixteen. It was one thing for Robin to take the bat-mobile out for a joy ride, but it was another thing for Damian Wayne to speed around Gotham without a license. Not that the police could catch him even if they wanted to. It was just the matter of keeping up eccentric profiles for the Gotham socialites.

                   If there was anything Tim and Dick could agree on was his skillfulness. While he could never match Terry’s intellect, the elder of the two was definitely better with his hands. From building a bat-mobile from scratch to the many repairs around the cave there was little he couldn’t tinker and fix.

                   “Mind if we swing by one place before classes start?” Tim asked as he buckled in.

                   Damian glanced at him, his curiosity peaked despite his attempt to hide his interest.

                   Tim ran his hand over the touch screen. “Just go to this address.”

                   Damian eyed the screen for a moment to memorize the route before he pulled the convertible out of the driveway. He was oddly agreeable. Dare he suggest that the brat wonder matured?

                   He was far from close.

                   Once off the manor grounds and onto the highway an evil smirk quirked up at the corner of his lips. Tim was given no warning as the car lurched from zero to eighty. He could hear the faint sounds of Damian roughly shifting gears over the roar of the engine and wind. With the speed he was going, Tim found himself pinned to the chair, clinging for his dear life as the other made hairpin turns and screeching drifts around the cliff side.

                   Just who the hell taught him how to drive?

o.o.o.o.o

                  It was two years since she returned with Dr. Leslie Thompkins. Two years since she made the mistake in not learning whom Matches Malone was before she started an all out gang war. She was kidnapped, beaten and declared dead, but she wasn’t. Dr. Thompkins faked her death in order to save her from further danger. She knew Bruce had a hand in shipping her out of the country even if Dr. Thompkins denied the fact.

                  She had planned to return to Gotham as a happy surprise to them all, but sadly, life was never simple. She returned to a Gotham in flames where Batman was dead and the fight for the mantle tore the city apart. It was a painful sight. She did what she could to help as Spoiler, while the city struggled through the fight.

                  The ending was not pleasant. Tim left, Cassandra abandoned Batgirl and Gotham was left darker than what she remembered. Not able to stand such a bleak city, she took up what Cassandra left behind. She became Batgirl. At first everyone disapproved her choice. From Barbara to Bruce’s brat son Damian, everyone had something to say either about her skills or her intentions.

                  But she stood firm through it all. Even with her extra college workload she managed some how. She won’t let their lack of faith and scathing remarks make her give up Gotham.

                  10:30, her mom had already left for work and it was time for her to leave for school. She grabbed her bag and left the house with her keys in hand. If she hurried, she could still make the next bus heading to Gotham U.

                  Not even five steps onto the sidewalk the roar of a powerful engine caught her attention as a red convertible rounded the corner at breakneck speeds. Worried that it might be a robber she tensed ready to run off and change into her Batgirl costume if needed, but at the sight of a familiar face at the wheel she paused.

                  The car raced past her in a gust of wind before it swerved in a one-eighty and slid neatly into an empty spot in front of her. She could smell the burned rubber streaked on the grounds as the screech of tires died off and the crack of the break was pulled up.

                  “… Good morning?” She debated whether or not she should scream at them for coming to her house in this manner. Do they _want_ their cover blown?

                  “… You wanted to stop here to pick up the fat-girl?” Damian said in a deadpanned voice. “You do know she can use the exercise.”

                  Stephanie felt her eye twitch in annoyance. “I have a name! Why are you two here? Do you want to get noticed?”

                  “Just get in the car!” Damian grumbled.

                  She crossed her arms. “Sorry, I have classes and can’t indulge on your selfish little joy ride. Tim I thought you should know better than to join him.”

                  He grinned sheepishly as he finally regained his voice. “We do too. Classes I mean.”

                  “By we…” She trailed off and stared at Damian.

                  “Yes.” Damian scowled. “What of it?”            

                  Tim grinned as he waved for her to jump in. “I’ll tell you on the way.” He turned to Damian. “Speed limit only or Alfred is driving tomorrow.”

                  Stephanie expected a dismissing “tt” from the brat prince and he would continue to drive in the manner he arrived, but much to her surprise, the ride to Gotham U was peaceful. From Tim, she learned that the youngest Robin was joining them as part of some bet. Tim didn’t tell her the details, but from what she gathered, it sounded like the brat prince needed to learn some humility and social skills.

                  “Aren’t you cute?” She grinned and ruffled his head as they walked out of the parking lot. “You’re following your big brother to school.”

                  He swatted her hand away. “I’m not following him.” He growled.

                  “Then why are you so close to him?” She chirped.

                  He hurriedly shifted away from Tim. The older boy sighed in amusement at the teasing. As much of a brat he was, she could see the subtle aversion he had towards others in the past. He may be foul tempered towards her, but at least he talked to her. He didn’t ignore her like he does to the rest of the school. Though, she was not sure whether or not it was a compliment.

                  “I’m not.” He denied pathetically.

                  “Sure you’re not.” She sang. “So what classes do you guys have?”

o.o.o.o.o

                  Tim smiled at the banter between the two. It looked like sibling squabble. This was definitely healthier for Damian compared to the company of computers and cold hard equipment all day. Between he and Barbara they managed to get Damian classes with either Tim or Stephanie at the same time. Sure, he managed to get into Gotham U with his grades and a hefty donation from Wayne Enterprise, but they weren’t that cruel to put him through this alone.

                  “You do know, if I really want to leave, I could easily _outrun_ you.” Damian said dryly as Tim noisily followed him in his crutches.

                  “I know.” Tim replied. He knew Damian would be annoyed with either one of them following him, but he really didn’t want to deal with a runaway student if Damian lost his nerve.

                  Damian paused and lowered his head with a sigh. “I’m not going to run away. I gave you my word I’ll be in school didn’t I?” He said in annoyance.

                  “When’s the next class?” Tim tested him.

                  “Two-thirty.” Damian grumbled.

                  Tim smiled slightly. “Don’t be late.”

                  Damian raised a dismissive hand and left without a word. Tim could see the dwindling patience in his body language and it was best to let him be before he snapped. After all, he already noted all the nooks and crannies the other could hide in. Even if the other doesn’t run away, he could still hide.

                  He adjusted his grip slightly to ease the tension in his arms, the crutches he used for his act made him sore. He glanced at his watch before he continued on his way towards the cafeteria. He promised to meet Stephanie for lunch.

                  The dining hall was crowded from the lunch rush as expected, but he wasn’t deterred by it. If worse comes to worse, he could sucker some poor soul to give up their seats. Not that he would, he wasn’t in the mood to play the pity card. Instead he skimmed the hall for free seats. Much to his surprise a familiar face caught his eye.

                   “…Terry?” He said in disbelief.

                  Halfway across the room was a young man with a pair of glasses munching on a sandwich while he glared intensely at his textbook. Tim wanted to approach him, but he never had a chance. The young man was in the middle of turning a page when he caught sight of the time on his watch. He jumped up in a hurry and shoved his books into his bag. He barely slung it over his shoulder as he polished off the rest his sandwich and ran off. It took no more than a minute for him to stumble out of the cafeteria, he must be late for class.

                  “…It… couldn’t be him.” Tim was uncertain. Terry was dead he saw his body. They buried him. But Jason came back from the dead before… was it possible Terry coud…?

                  “It couldn’t be who?” Stephanie asked as she came up from behind.

                  “It’s…” Tim trailed off and shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

o.o.o.o.o

                  Once Damian was freed from Drake and walked out of his sight, he quickly searched for a place to hide from the overbearing former Robin. True he said he would attend school in exchange for passwords, but he said nothing about interactions with others. He fully intended to find a place within the school and hide for the next few classes. He scoured the building for a suitable place where the other would least likely search for him. 

                  Sadly, there were very few places he could hide and stay in solitude. In the end he decided to hide in the recital hall. It was silent and dark, compared to the rest of the school. The only light was situated on the stage on a lone baby grand.

                  “Tt…” Damian grumbled as he walked down the dark isle. “Trust these imbeciles to use every room in the damn school and leave the theatre alone.”

                  He jumped onto the stage and rested a hand on the cool wood. It was a while since he seen one. The manor has one, but rarely does he go down the wing where it sat. The last time he touched one was during his vocal training. He sat down and pried the cover open with a bored face. He had some time to kill before he needed to move to the next location and avoid the older Robin.

                  His hand danced over the ivory keys softly, gently plucking a note or two to check the tuning on the instrument. His mind ran through a selection of notes his instructor pounded into his head in the past.

                  He raised his second hand and closed his eyes as his hands flow across the keys on its own. The soft melody resonated in the empty theatre soothingly. He surrendered himself to the somber music for a moment as he thought over his actions.

                  Was it really worth it to come here? Just for answers? He never gave a damn about his brother before, why was he now? Why was he so desperate to know more of his brother? He wanted the affirmation from his father, not his brother. Yet, he found himself desiring more. 

                  Damian’s eyes drifted open slightly to stare down at the white and black keys, his hands still playing the melody.

                   Those brief weeks they spent together, while short was probably the most enjoyable time he had in his whole life. To be able to compete with someone who shared father’s blood. To feel the rush without having to worry about being judged. It felt… nice. It wasn’t annoying like Grayson’s constant shower of affection. He was his… equal.

                  His eyes drifted close again as he played the final measures of the melody. He could forget about classes and imbeciles, but he wasn’t allowed to when he heard clapping.

                  Damian snapped his eyes open and glanced towards the source of the noise. There were two people at the doorway. When did they come in? The one clapping was a dark-skinned classmate from his history class and next to him was a pink-haired girl with a camera phone in her hand. He quickly closed the lid and stood.

                  “Oh don’t stop, you were great!” The pink-haired girl said as she lowered her camera phone.

                  Damian ignored her compliments and jumped off the stage. His hideaway was useless now, he needed to move to the next location before Drake found him.

                  “Damian right?” The other called out to him as he walked past them and towards the exit. “We saw you in history class this morning. The way you argued with the professor was hilarious.”

                  “I don’t care.” He remarked snidely and left them. He has no interest in peasants.

o.o.o.o.o

                  Max watched as the peculiar Wayne walked passed them and out of the theatre. With the way he acted, she never expected the gentle melodies from him. Yet, she couldn’t help but feel like she should get to know him better. While she was not the type to fall for someone easily, there was something about him that was captivating. Something about the way he acted reminded her of someone.

                  “What’s his problem?” Jared crossed his arms mildly peeved at the dismissal.

                  “Maybe he’s having a bad day.” Max reasoned as she saved the video clip. She would look it over again to see why it bothered her later when she doesn’t have classes.

                   She and Jared were in between classes when they heard a melody from the theatre hall. To tell the truth, she never expected to make much of herself when the earthquake took her parents from her. After Gotham was plunged into chaos and the government cut the city off from the rest of the country, she was left virtually defenseless in the crazy city. She expected to die if it was not for Poison Ivy who took her along with all the other orphans created from the crisis.

                  After Batman ripped Gotham from the clutches of the rogues and psychopaths, they were all shipped off to various orphanages. College was the furthest thing from her mind. She wouldn’t have even considered it as an option if not for Terry’s constant encouragement. To tell the truth, she found him a bit odd even when they first met at Poison Ivy’s care. He was always quiet and reserved. Never spoke unless spoken to and never gave out much information about himself even when asked.

                  If it weren’t for him, she’d probably end up at some dead-end job or sold herself like Michael. Mind you, he actually enjoyed his job. With tutoring from Terry and scholarship from Wayne Enterprise, she and Jared had made it into Gotham U. They weren’t the only ones, Terry was in Gotham U at the tender age of 14. Kevin had made it into Princeton University under the Thomas Wayne foundation for aspiring medical students. And all the others had found one way or another on their own career pursuits. There was a lot she had to thank Terry for.

                  That was it! She knew what was so familiar about the young Wayne. He reminded her of Terry. The outward coldness, the serious vibe and the hidden gentleness, it all reminded her of Terry. Albeit she wasn’t too sure if the gentle melody really gave her the impression that the snarky young man was actually nice, but there was an odd similarity between the two.

                  When she brought up the topic of Damian Wayne later that week, the younger boy looked mildly interested for a brief moment before he shrugged it off. “If you think he might have a nice side, why don’t you try making friends with him? He could probably use a positive influence to tone down his bigot personality.”

                  “Really?” She was surprised that he suggested this so casually without even going into details about how it would be beneficial to befriend a blue blood like Wayne. 

                   “You could always ignore him if you see he’s not worth your time.” Terry shrugged.

                  He didn’t say much, he preferred to listen to the problems of the other Ivys. She didn’t press on, but she couldn’t get over the nagging feeling that the young Wayne reminded her of him.

o.o.o.o.o

                  Terry was surprised when Max came to him with a recording of Damian on the piano. What was the homicidal brat doing outside of the manor? Much less out as a civilian playing the piano. His moment of disbelief lingered briefly before logic resumed.

                  This was likely the work of his dad’s wards. Why else would Damian grace himself among _peasants_? He paused in his thoughts and watched the rest of the clip. He never thought it was possible for the other to be human. Maybe this attempt wasn’t as fruitless as he thought. He glanced at Max at the corner of his eyes. She was waiting for an answer.

                  Sure, why not?

                  “If you think he’s worth your time, then befriend him. If not, you could always ignore him.”

                  It was a good arrangement. He could help his fellow Ivys advance in their careers, spy on the family, and maybe get a less homicidal brother out of this. It was a triple win situation. He opted to not show much interest to avoid suspicion. He did train these Ivys to interrogate and pull information from people. He wasn’t about to let them use it against him.

                  He stayed with the Ivys for an hour longer before he dismissed himself. It was part of his weekly routine. During the week, he would juggle schoolwork and the alleged Warren McGinnis’ work. On Friday evenings he would get together with the Ivys to listen and deal with problems that came up in the week. Then after he was done with all his business in Gotham, he left for Titan’s Tower for the weekend before repeating his routine again.

                  XIII regularly came to pick him up from the rooftop after his meetings with the Ivys. It was cheaper than the alternative until he was either old enough to drive or build something of his own.

                  “Hey Beyond… you wouldn’t have happened to run into Tim while in school did you? Did you know he’s going to your school? And with your brother?”

                  Terry shrugged. “Tim’s in crutches, it wouldn’t be ethical for me to run into him even if it’s an act on his part.”

                  “… That’s not what I meant.” The super clone said in deadpanned.

                  “I know.” He chirped.

                  XIII sighed. “Did you let him see you? Or did you not know and ran when you realized he was there?”

                  “Oh, you mean in the cafeteria? I was late for class.”

                  “… So it was you.” XIII palmed his forehead with his palm. “He said something earlier this week about seeing someone that looked like you before laughing it off as a crazy obsession… Argh, that idiot.”

                  Terry laughed loudly on his fellow project’s back with his arms held firmly around XIII’s neck. “XIII, your dad’s disguise is awesome! Even Tim the genius of the family can’t tell it’s me!”

                  The younger project grumbled. “And he used that same disguise when he was in boarding school too. Tim!” He whined. “What is wrong with you?"

                 Terry fell into another fit of laughter. “Maybe he’s too smart for his own good.” He held back his chuckles and continued. “Putting Tim aside, how’s school for you?”                 

                  “I’m taking chem, it was better than some of the other classes they offered.”

                  “Be careful XIII, you might just make an arch enemy there.” Batboy teased.

                  “Huh? Why?”

                  “Don’t you know?” He grinned brightly. “Your pa was the cause of your mother’s baldness. If you’re not careful, you might just go bald and evil.”

                  “What?” Superboy cried in horror. “Never! My dashing good looks would be ruined!”

                  The smaller teen giggled breathlessly. “You never know!”

                  “Come on! It’s not even funny!” Superboy whined.

                  “Of course it is! Future baldy!”

                  By now, the two forgotten all about Tim and Damian.

 


	5. What a Drag

_Clink, clink, clink_

            Jason played with the remaining ice in his highball glass while he waited in the Iceberg Lounge. The kid was late and it was his idea to meet at Penguin’s establishment. Why he wanted to talk in front of possibly most of Gotham’s rogues was beyond him. True, Jason had said he’d continue his operations in the underworld if only to take them down from the inside out, but it didn’t mean he wanted to hang around rogues unnecessarily.

            “Is this seat taken?” A soft alluring voice asked.

 He glanced up at the young woman who took the seat across from him. She wore the most evocative evening gown, her face was dolled up tastefully and her luscious curls hung softly around her bare neck. The only downside Jason noted was the lack of cup size. If she was a hooker, she won’t make much with such small assets.

            “I’m waiting for someone.” He commented, his eyes lingered on her. Something about her looked familiar. “Have we met before?”

            The woman smiled. “Oh you charmer you. You say that to all the pretty girls you meet don’t you?”

            “Sure lady, whatever you say.” Jason said dryly.

            “Well, why don’t we get to the point then?” The soft voice dropped a few octaves lower. “How many toys can you carry home today?” 

            Jason jumped at the familiar voice. “…Kid?”

            A bright smile appeared on the rosy painted lips. “Fool you didn’t I?” The voice resumed to a higher octave. “So how did I do? I had to ask my friends for help, but it’s a good right?”

            The former Robin stared at him in silence and disbelief.

            “What?” Terry tilted his head curiously. 

            “… You’re… cross-dressing.” Jason said with a red face.

            Terry frowned. “Is it that bad?” He turned and glanced over his clothing before he dropped his hands onto his lap in a lady-like manner

            Jason couldn’t take it any longer, he burst into a hearty laughter. “I-I can’t believe you.” He laughed and laughed until his sides stung.

            “… I didn’t think it would be that hilarious…” Terry murmured while Jason continued to pound the table laughing.

            Not long after, Penguin came to the scene and inquired about the noise. “Sir! You are disturbing my other patrons.”

            Jason stifled his laughter and raised a hand to grab Penguin under his arm fondly. “Ah, come off it Penguin. I’m about to leave with my lady anyway.” He slapped the man firmly in the back and knocked his monocle off his eye. “Come on sweet c-cheeks.” He went into another fit of laughter. 

            Terry smiled lightly as he stood and looped an arm around Jason’s. They left arm in arm with Jason leaning on the younger boy, his body still shook with laughter.

            “I can’t believe you came dressed like that.” Jason snickered long after they made it back to the car.

             “Really, I don’t see what’s so funny.” Terry droned dully in the passenger.

             “Man, I wish I brought a camera. Hey, think we could head back to my place for me to get my—”

             Terry looked mildly annoyed. “Do you want the toys or not? I’m not going to show you to the drop off point if you’re going to be like this.” He huffed.

              Jason stifled his laughter and waved a careless hand. “All right, all right, I’ll stop laughing, but what convinced you to come dressed like that of all things?”

              “I don’t want to be recognized.” He crossed his arms.

              “… That’s it? You cross-dress because of that? You could’ve just worn a hat and done some makeup. Considering you were pretty good with your current makeup.” He bit back a snicker.

              “I wanted to see if I could pull off going around as a girl. Besides, as a girl, there’s a lesser chance for people to connect me to you.” Terry pointed out.

              “Fine, fine whatever gets you off at night.” Jason said wryly.

              “Yes, I believe it would.” Terry agreed.

               Jason paused and glanced at the younger boy briefly. Did he not get his innuendo or is he really oblivious?

              “Turn here.” Terry pointed a finger to the next corner.

              Once parked, he led Jason towards a dead end alleyway. He pressed a brick on the wall a keypad flipped out. Terry promptly typed in the pass code before a passage opened up below them. Jason didn’t scream or yelp as they plunged down the dark passage. He was familiar with this particular bunker. It was one of Bruce’s backup caves.

              Jason landed firmly with his feet to the ground, but Terry had some trouble as he stumbled over his heels. The older man snickered as he caught the younger boy. “Regret wearing heels yet?”

              Terry huffed and composed himself. “There are heroines that could fight and succeed in heels. It’s just the matter of practice.” He grumbled as he smoothed the dress and walked towards the arsenal. “All right, back to business. This is only one of the bunkers I used to store the toys. I’ll be changing locations often just incase there’s a chance that they decide to use this particular bunker or the others.” 

             “Why would they use these bunkers? Scratch that, do they even know about these bunkers?” Jason asked.

             “Dad has it on record, if they knew where to look they’ll find it. And it never hurts to be too careful. This should be enough to last you a while. Can you transport them back to your hideout?”

o.o.o.o.o

              For the next two months, the two continued to meet at the Iceberg Lounge and later a bunker of Terry’s choosing. It wasn’t until the third month that Terry finally forgone the need to meet at the lounge and gave him a direct address to go to.

              Jason raised a brow at the storefront. It looked run down just as much as the rest of the area. Instead of a large billboard with the name there was a scroll nailed to the door with the name and hours. Terry waited outside, dressed in casuals for once.

              “I see you’re wearing pants.” Jason grinned as he watched the other rolled his eyes. He glanced to the sign with his hands in his pockets. “Since when did this area have a dojo?” Jason asked as he closed the distance.

              “Since I came back,” Terry replied simply as he pulled out keys and opened the door for them to enter.

               Jason followed into the dark store. “You’re telling me you’re running a dojo? I’ve seen your skills; they’re second-rate at best.” The room was pitch dark. “Turn on the lights would you?”

               Silence.

               “Kid?” He called out, but nothing.

               A metal pipe whistled in the air. The former Robin quickly ducked and rolled away. When the pipe hit the ground, he pulled out his gun and readied to fire. Before he pulled the trigger, he felt a weight atop of his gun. He arm was pushed down and a pair of legs knocking him to the ground.

              It all took no more than a few seconds before the light came on and he found a woman even more attractive than the cross-dressing Terry.  Her dark short feathery hair framed her face like a delicate art piece, her eyes sharp and dangerous. With a better look, he found the pipe pinned against his throat, but more importantly, her legs trapped him arms and body to the ground.

             “Who are you?” The beautiful young woman snarled.

             Jason stayed still and stared up at her lovely scowl. “… The idiot that died and went to heaven.”

             “He’s not an enemy.” Terry’s voice drew their attention away from one another. “He used to be a Robin, Jason Todd. And she’s Cassandra Cain, former Batgirl.”

             “He’s Red Hood, I’ve seen him before. A villain.” She started, but before she could go any further she felt a wandering hand grope her behind. Startled, she quickly punched Jason in the face for the assault.

             Terry winced briefly at the punch. “Maybe you shouldn’t aggravate her.”

             Jason smiled wryly as he held up his hands defensively, as much as he could with her still seated on top of him. “All right, all right, I’ll be good and keep my hands to myself.”

             “Cassandra if you would?” Terry nodded to her to let the other up. She glared down at Jason as she climbed off and tossed the pipe aside. She didn’t need a pipe to disable him if she wanted. “This dojo is actually hers.”

             “Why is he here?” She crossed her arms, her eyes never left Jason’s.

             Terry smiled brightly. “I wanted to show him who I was learning from! He said my skills were second-rate! So I wanted him to see just what you can do!” Terry paused thoughtfully. “Well, that and I’m making Jason work for his toys. Since I have classes soon, I can’t really keep you company or show you around the area. So I’m having him do it.”

             “Hey, I never agreed to this.” Jason protested.

             Terry stuck his tongue out. “Well, you have to if you want the toys.” He turned to Cassandra with bright eyes. “Come on, it won’t be bad with him. If he tries to touch you again, you can easily break his arms right?”

             “Hey! I’m a perfect gentleman.” Jason retorted. Cassandra gave him the eye as if she knew he was lying. “Fine, I could play a perfect gentleman.”

             “So I can trust you to familiarize Cassandra with this area’s day activities?” Terry said eagerly he rocked back and forth on his feet.

             “Yeah, yeah, I said I could at least act like a gentleman didn’t I? What time’s your class kid?” Jason asked as he jumped up from the ground and patted away the dust from his clothes.

             “Soon, actually I have to get going. Here are all the things Cassandra need to get done and the money. Don’t you dare try to scam her!” He handed Jason a list and a wallet before he hurried out the door. “I’m off now! Good luck!”

             The door swung shut. Cassandra and Jason waited for a moment before either of them spoke.

             “He’s a bad liar isn’t he?” Jason sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, beautiful where do you want to go? I’ll be your humble chauffer today.” He grinned wryly.

             Cassandra rolled her eyes as he opened the door for her and they both walked out. As they strolled along, the two noticed someone trailing after them. Specifically, a poorly hidden Terry who stalked them like a puppy who was told to stay.

             “Should we blow his cover?” Jason asked in amusement as they walked side by side.

             “Let him, good practice.” She replied.

             “Whatever you say.” He murmured and pulled out the list, while small, it unraveled to a long list filled with numbers and brand names from groceries to hardware. “… The hell?” He unraveled the list some more and found an explanation on the bottom on over buying would result in spoilage or overcrowding.

             “Something wrong?” Cassandra asked.

             Jason showed her the abnormally long list. “Is it really necessary for him to be this detailed? The kid is like his old man! You could decide whether or not you want to get something can’t you?”

             Cassandra didn’t look at him as she muttered. “I don’t know what to buy.”

             “Don’t know what to buy?” Jason said in disbelief. “Just buy what you like. Why are you letting the kid boss you around in this stuff? You can kick his ass.”

             She flushed red and made a grab for the list. “Give me list! I can do this myself!”

             Jason held the roll away at arm’s length and raised a brow. “I think you’re hiding something.”

             “I am not.” Cassandra retorted and continued to grab for the list.

             The other grinned. “No, I think you really are hiding something. Come on, tell me. I won’t laugh.”

             She growled and twisted his arm behind his back. “I will not be made fun of.” 

              “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!” Jason grimaced as she shoved his arm back. “I’m not making fun of you!”

             “I’ve taken down people worse than you and people who aren’t even a challenge. I don’t know how you were beaten by the Joker.” She glared down at him.

            "… You did something to the Joker?” He asked, highly interested, completely forgetting that he was held in a compromised position.

             “I said he was boring and he tried to attack me, but that man is weak. Barely a challenge.” She said.

             “I think I’m in love.” Jason sighed, he startled Cassandra in loosening her grip. He made a quick turn and a silly grin. 

o.o.o.o.o

              Terry smiled giddily at the interaction between the two.  At first he was worried that neither of them would get along, but his worries were unfounded. He was tired of changing their rendezvous point every week. It was definitely more convenient to dump the arsenal with Cassandra and have him pick it up there, but what just happened was better than he expected. With Jason pining for Cassandra, they could slowly manipulate him to better himself and stray away from the dark road he chose.

              He wanted to stay longer and watched the two, but unfortunately the Ivys called about a certain stalking problem named Robin.

             “What a drag.” He murmured to himself as he left.

 


	6. The Prince's Perspective

            “Kill me.” Damian grumbled miserably over the toilet as he begged for the torture to end. His stomach lurched and he found himself worshipping the porcelain god. He was raised by assassins; trained by the best masters in the world there were little that could stop him or torment him…until today.

            Hours ago he found himself trapped and coerced by his classmates. Normally, he would not stand for such injustice on his person, but unfortunately he had to oblige Drake’s whims. Even though he and the fat-girl have graduate and left him in college, he still insisted Damian continue to interact with his peers. Just from the look in his eyes and the grin on his face, he could read the intent of the older Robin. If he wanted any clues or help, he needed to endure the outing with civilians… peasants. Civility would be difficult.

            “It’s not that bad.” Max, his pink-haired classmate, sighed in exasperation as she and Jared dragged him through the festivities outside the streets of Gotham U. “The way you’re acting, you look like you’ve never been to these little street fairs. Come on! It’s fun! Junk food, game stalls, flea markets there’s bound to be something you’ll enjoy.”

            “… I don’t want junk food.” Damian replied, the ensemble of food looked nauseating.

            “No way you’re getting out of this mister spoiled prince.” Jared said as he pushed Damian from behind.

            Damian struggled against his temptation to flee from the crowded fair. The mixed scents from fried food to barbeque, to various other unhealthy options attacked his senses. He didn’t realize how much he took for granted Alfred’s loving home-cooked meals until now.

            “Have you even tried half this stuff before?” Max asked as she glanced back to him curiously. “What do you normally eat?”

            “Roasted pheasant with a raspberry reduced sauce and white truffles.” Damian replied bluntly. “And no, I have not tried nor intend to try this junk you call food.”

            “Not even pizza?” Jared said in shock.

            Damian glanced away in annoyance.

            “I never thought I see the day.” Max shook her head and grabbed him by the hand. “Don’t know what rock you’ve been living under, but we’re going to get you introduced to the great joy of gorging unhealthily.”

            Within minutes, he found himself dragged to the steps of the surrounding buildings as his two captors divided up the large quantity of food. Burgers, chilidogs, pizza, funnel cake, baby back ribs, corndogs, crepes, corn on the cob and countless other plates. All paid for by him as a tradeoff to leave early.

            “… Do I have to eat this?” He stared at the messy chilidog that dripped and pooled on the plate against the third of a burger and the melted cheese on the pizza. They had divided up the food so he could try more than one item at a time.

            “It’s good! Just try it.” Max urged.

            His eye twitched as he held his breath and wolfed down each piece on his plate. He couldn’t say he liked many of the dishes. Either they were greasy, too salty or too sweet. Once he was done, the two promptly dragged him off to the flea market and shoved ridiculous hats and masks on him for a good laugh. He wasn’t the least bit amused.

            “Come on, come on! I want to get a Batman. How good are you with water guns?” Max asked as she dragged him to the game booth with Lego Batman and Robin plush toys hanging on top.

            “This is ridiculous.” Damian muttered at the easiest targets in his life. He could snipe someone 800 yards away. This was nothing.

            “What? You scared that we’d beat you?” Jared commented with a sly grin.

            Damian scowled, him afraid of these two civilians? He slapped a fifty down on the counter. “I’ll take you both down.”

            Ten games and an armful of plush toys later Damian felt under the weather. His hands felt clammy and a chill went up his spine. Something was wrong.

            “Are you feeling okay?” Max asked worriedly as she clung onto the number of Lego plush toys he had won.

            “I’m fine.” He murmured as he swayed from the booth. His stomach turned. “I’m going home.”

            The two protested and wouldn’t let him leave until he left them with his contact information. They were adamant for him to join their future outings. He couldn’t stick around much longer. He felt sick, poisoned maybe? He had no time to ponder. He gave them his number and hurried back to the manor. If it was a poison, there were various anti-toxins back at the cave. Even if it wasn’t, Grayson, Drake or Alfred could do something about this. He found himself worshipping the porcelain god minutes after he returned to the manor.

            “… What did you eat?” Dick asked with a hand over his mouth as his Robin weakly flushed the contents away.

            “Poison. I think those peasants tried to poison me.” Damian said weakly, his head rested against the seat cover.

            “…I think you ate too much.” Dick shook his head as he knelt down to haul him up and back to his bed.

            “Noooo, it’s poison! I know it is.” Damian slurred incoherently too weak to protest against him.

            “Maybe a mild case of food poisoning, but it shouldn’t be anything too serious.” Dick said as he tucked him into bed. “Sleep, no patrolling tonight.”

            “I could still patrol!” Damian protested weakly, but not a moment later, he was unconscious under his covers exhausted and stressed from the vomiting.

o.o.o.o.o

            Three days later, Max and Jared phoned Terry when they noticed Robin stalking them incessantly during the evenings. At first they hadn’t notice the teen wonder, but after much training from Terry, they learned to notice things they normally wouldn’t. Things in their homes were out of place, their windows were left open and more importantly, they caught sight of a disappearing cape on one occasion.

            They haven’t a clue what could’ve caused the violent wonder to be interested in them and judging by the rumors they heard of him, they really didn’t want to get on his wrong side. Broken limbs and tossed off the side of a building was considered him in a good mood. It terrified them to even imagine what would he do to them if he found a reason to.

            After Terry interrogated them to every last detail to what they’ve done the past three days their helpful friend told them to leave out cold pizza or half eaten hot pockets. At first they were skeptical to why their friend would tell them to do such strange things, but within a few days, they quickly noticed a change.

            Robin was no longer on their tails. If Terry had told them to leave out garlic bread or garlic, they would have thought of the violent wonder as a vampire… but cheese and pepperoni? Was one of the heroes of Gotham allergic to these things?

o.o.o.o.o

            Damian scowled as he pondered how to investigate his two classmates. He was certain they were the one that poisoned him and he had a sinking suspicion that they might know he was stalking and following them. Why else would they leave such poisons to ward him away?

            He couldn’t even stand the smell of the putrid item without the need to run to the bathroom and eject everything out of his stomach again. He raised a hand to cover his mouth. Even the thought was enough to sicken him. 

            He shook his head; this wasn’t what he needed. Today was his brother’s death day. Seven years since his death, four years since he started the ritual to stay by his empty grave in remembrance. His father had done the same for his grandparents and he found the same comfort in doing the same for his late brother.

            He glanced to his watch, classes have already started, but he wasn’t going to bother with school. Grayson and Drake made no efforts to stop him when it came time for Terry’s death day. He made his way down to the door when the doorbell chimed. A frown marred his face, his hand lingered on the knob for a moment. Who on earth was visiting? Doesn’t Alfred normally deal with any nuisances that come to the manor?

            Cautiously he opened the door and the putrid scent of pizza invaded his senses. Standing before him was Jason Todd in a pizza delivery attire. “Hey brat, I heard you _love_ pizza.”

            A hand quickly shot up to his mouth as Damian backed away. He wanted nothing more than to slaughter the man before him, but his stomach protested otherwise. He had no choice but to flee to the safety of the bathroom.

            Had he stayed he would’ve heard Jason’s laughter and his wry comment. “I guess the kid was right. His kryptonite really is pizza.”

 


	7. Oddities

            Jason Todd hated his job. Oh, don't mistake this with his night job, he adored beating criminals senseless and traumatize whatever foul scum there was in the world. The job he hated was his day job. You wonder why he has a day job when he has most of the drug dealing scums of the underworld giving him forty percent of their profits every week?

            That money was used solely to fund his nightly activities. Given how expensive his toys were that left scraps for him to live off. Which brings us back to his day job. With his choice of lifestyle, a long-term serious job would hinder his operations. He needed a job with flexible hours and the freedom to leave when time came to push.

            “Excuse me?” Someone tapped him from behind.

            He resisted a sigh and turned around. “Welcome to Staples, how can I help you?”

            Much to his surprise it was Bruce’s youngest with a bewildered look on his face.

            “What do you want kid? Come to laugh at my day job?” He said with deadpanned face.

            “… Um… just wondering why you’re here?” Terry asked sheepishly.

            “Bills need to be paid. Now what do you want?” Jason grumbled in annoyance.

            Terry blinked slowly as if he was still surprised. “I thought you’re a deviant, shouldn’t you have more creative ways to get money?”

            “Look kid, I’m only human, even I need rest. This is the least strenuous job that won’t tire me out by the time night comes.” Jason grumbled. “Now buy something or scram.”

            The younger man was silent as he walked off to one of the isles and Jason resumed taking inventory of their supplies. Not ten minutes later he felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned to face the smiling Terry with an armful of supplies.

            “Ring me up?” He asked cheerily.

            “There’s already a cashier up front.” Jason said bluntly.

            “But I wanna chat with you.” He chirped back.

            Jason sighed in exasperation. It looked like the kid wasn’t going to leave him alone until he humored him. “Fine.” He muttered and led the other towards the front where his coworker was chatting on her cell. She glanced at him for a second, but he waved to her that he got this and went behind the counter.

            “You do know you’re wasting your time here.” Terry commented as he dropped his notebooks, pens and other supplies onto the counter.

            “Bite me.” Jason grumbled and scanned the items.

            “You’re not resting by working in mindless tasks. You’re just giving yourself more work to sit through this. For example you could be a plumber, or a locksmith or even a delivery guy.” Terry said as he toyed with the mini-pens stocked next to the cash register.

            “And how are they any different than this job? It’s still mindless work.” Jason glared at the lead refills when they didn’t scan.

            “Well… think of it this way. With those jobs even the most secured military nuclear base would let you in. You could be a badass secret spy! How cool is that?” Terry laughed.

            Jason knew the last bit was to throw off his coworker’s attention to it being something silly rather something serious, but he did think about it as he manually typed in the price for the refills.

            “Annnnnd.” Terry drawled excitedly, but the look in his eyes was serious. “You don’t have to stay in one place all the time, you could move, you can travel.”

            “$34.59.” Jason replied as he set the bag in front of him with receipt at hand.

            Terry paid and picked up his bag with another look in his eyes. “Think about it Jay, you could be doing something more interesting.”

            Once he was gone, Jason turned to his coworker and signaled he was going on his break. What the kid said lingered in his head. He was surprised that he didn’t laugh at how mundane his work was; instead he even gave a few good suggestions. Why stop at something like this? When other jobs could be used to help the night? He’d be more restful without needing to scout and stalk as much during the night. He could use this to his advantage.

            Ideas began to flow into his mind as an evil grin crossed his face. He could go to suspected houses and break their pipes or locks. Then they’ll call him in the morning and he could easily go in and investigate. It was such genius it was criminal! Well… it would be criminal, but at least it’d be more interesting than seven-fifty an hour in a boring place like Staples… and less embarrassing if any of the family managed to stumble across him while he worked… It was a good thing that the kid found it a waste of time rather than laugh at how embarrassing it is to work here. 

            He quit the day after he found work with a plumbing company. It wasn’t as pleasant as he originally thought. He was in arms deep sewage and smelled of other people’s shit for three weeks. Even he had a limit of how much shit he could handle. When he found another job, he was a locksmith.

            Instead of foul smells, he dealt with dumbasses. Half the houses he attended to were dumb crooks that thought they could find an easy way into someone’s house by calling a locksmith. A quick question for their license and they were halfway down the block running. The effort to catch them was nonexistent. He lasted two weeks before he found the need for a job change. His sanity slipped away with each idiot he encountered. 

            The next profession was in AAA, he finished the training in weeks compared to the six months that was required. How could he not? Working with the bat-mobile and jacking cars in his youth was more than enough to qualify him for these menial jobs. He thought there might be a moment of peace, but luck wasn’t on his side. Car thieves, pill poppers and an occasional dead body, joy—not. He only found the urge to plant car bombs under these cars and let them go off in a distance. Of course, he resisted, the kid would give him hell if he killed again. Instead he rigged the gas intake to take in air when it was refueling gas.

            Not even two months into the job, he found himself kidnapped. Him! The freaking Red Hood of Gotham! Kidnapped! By Mr. Freeze of all people. Apparently, the man needed him to help build him a freezer truck for whatever nefarious deeds he planned. What were the chances?

            For the first time he had a blast as he rigged the freezer truck to do the exact opposite. By the time he was done with it, it would be an oven… at least that was what he planned before the new Batgirl crashed into the party and got her skinny little ass caught and held hostage. He had no choice but slip away and suit up to save her. Luckily he has his gear with him at all times even in the dead heat of summer, but he supposed it was moot point when the villain was ice based.

o.o.o.o.o

            Stephanie Brown had the worse off day of her life. First she broke a nail in the morning, then she was late for work and now she was Mr. Freeze’s hostage. To make things worse, her connection to Oracle was severed and she had no means of backup or a way to get out. The man made certain to encase her in ice to prevent her from moving. Fortunately, the suit is well insulated and she won’t suffer from any frostbite, but even so, she was not sure how she was getting out of this mess.

            “Stop hoping, no one is coming to save you. If they haven’t come now, they won’t come ever. This operation is highly secured.” Mr. Freeze droned.

            She glared at him without a word. How was she getting out of this? Her answer came when the door blew open and the Red Hood entered with a gas tank on his back and a torch in hand.

            “Helllllo Mr. Freeze.” He grinned sadistically. “Say hello to Mr. Torch!”

            Stephanie stared in disbelief as he wielded the torch left and right like a madman while still slipping in punches and kicks and gas bombs. How did he know they were there? Why was he helping her? Her questions were unanswered as he hurriedly slapped rocket boosters onto the man’s chest and blasted Freeze out of the room and cracked his glass helmet. The fight lasted no more than a few minutes before he came back.

            Tim told her many stories about the man, she was wary of him, especially with a blowtorch in hand. Yet, he took the utmost care to torch her ice prison and get her out if only somewhat soaked.

            “Can you walk?” He asked as he chucked the torch and gas tank aside.

            She shivered. “In an hour or so.”

            “The police will be here in thirty.” He said bluntly as he hauled her up and shot a line through the glass roof.

            She didn’t get a chance to protest as he carried her off a good few rooftops away. By the time he set her down, she could barely stand. “Uh… Thanks…?”

            “Thanks won’t cut it girly, you owe me.” He replied with his hands at his hips.

            She grinned slightly at that, how typical of a guy to ask for a reward. “All right then.” She said as she leaned forward and pecked him on the lips. His eyes widened. Obviously, he hadn’t expected that.

            He regained composure a moment later and covered his embarrassment with a cough. “That won’t cover it. You still owe me.”

            “All right, call me up when you want me to return the favor.” She chirped happily.

            “You can get on alone right?” He asked. After she gave her nod, he left without a word.

            “…He’s not so bad.” Stephanie murmured with a finger to her cheek.

o.o.o.o.o

            Jason wasn’t sure if blonde would tell the family about him, but he rather not have them bother him about helping her. He could just say the girl was delusional. He was sick of his job by the time morning came. It was time for another change. He search through ads for his next job when a call from the kid came.

            “Hey Jay, you won’t believe what I just found out!” Terry sounded like an excited little kid on Christmas morning. “The current Robin’s kryptonite is pizza! PIZZA! Can you believe that?”

            “…Pizza?” Jason repeated dumbly in disbelief, but then a smile crossed his face.

            “I trust you won’t let that info get to criminal hands.” He tone was serious almost like Bruce, but he could still hear the mirth in his voice.

            “Oh I wouldn’t dream of letting any rogue get their hands on that. Is that all kid?” He kept the sly tone from his voice. He found his new job.

            Once Terry hung up he immediately looked up pizza places to call up. A pizza delivery boy may have its quirks. He stalked the family for days to measure out their schedules before going up to the manor with pizza in hand. He really wanted to see first hand if the brat would hurl from the smell alone. With Alfred in the kitchen and the brat wandering about he was sure the brat would answer the door.

            “Hey brat, I heard you _love_ pizza.” Jason drawled with amusement when the brat came to the door.

            A hand quickly shot up to the boy’s mouth as he backed away with a sickened look on his face. It took no more than a minute for him to dart away from him and towards the closest bathroom.

            Jason laughed heartily as he closed the box and leaned against the door for support. “I guess the kid was right. His kryptonite really is pizza.”

            Despite the boundless humor pizza brought him, he soon found the delivery business dull. The next job, a taxi driver and would you believe it that this was probably the most fun he had since he started job-hopping. He just has to get his client from point A to point B quickly and not get into any accidents while doing so.

            All in all, he might’ve terrified some to never ride taxi ever again, but for him it was a freedom. He could choose his clientele, he could choose how fast or slow to drive, he could make the ride pleasant or hell. And with Gotham’s rep, there was always someone who needed to flee from a killer gang or something of the sort.

           “Quick drive!” A man scrambled into the back of his car.

           “Where to boss?” He said lazily as he glanced at the rear mirror.

           “Anywhere! Just drive!” The man ordered, he was sweating bullets and he looked mighty shady.

           “You sure now?” Jason grinned.

           “YES! DRIVE!” He begged.

           “Whatever you say.” He said as he drove off. Little did the man know, Jason would interrogate him until he begged for mercy. God, he loved his job.

 


	8. Visitation

            Damian thought school was the most torturous thing in the world. Especially with two babysitters, Tim and fat-girl, forcing him to socialize with his peers. Two, who he must remind you, tried to kill him with the likes of pizza and various other poisonous items identified as fair food. His only solace was the weekends where he secluded himself in the manor or the cave until it was time for patrol to come about. 

            At least it was until Dick decided that Tim should take him on a trip to Titan’s Tower to mingle with his so called _fellow heroes_. He scoffed at how cheery the current Batman introduced the idea. He flat out refused when it was brought up, but Tim quickly changed his mind with pictures of his brother and father together long before their deaths. If he wanted those pictures, he had no choice but to comply. He found himself buckled into the Batwing with his arms crossed and waited for the looming torture to come.

            “It’s not that bad.” Tim said exasperatedly as he flew the Batwing to the tower.

            “I’m only doing this for those pictures, you better not double cross me Drake.” Damian grumbled.

            Tim sighed and pulled out a photo and reached back for Damian to take the offering. “I’ll give you one right now and the rest when we get home.”

            Damian was quick to snatch it out of his hand and carefully looked over the glossy surface. Had there been a mirror up front, Tim would’ve caught the smallest hint of a smile on the young Robin’s face.

            “We’re here.” Tim said as the Batwing descended. 

            Damian peeked out the side of the glass and spotted a figure waiting for them near the landing pad. He narrowed his eyes when he spotted Superboy, the big blue boy scout’s clone. Already he could tell the visit would not bode well with him. 

            “… What’s so interesting about this place?” Damian muttered as ha climbed out the Batwing along with Tim. Their capes swished and covered them as they landed on the ground.

            “Will you just give it a chance before you shoot it down?” Tim rolled his eyes as they walked towards Superboy.

            “Hey!” The clone greeted them happily. “I see you brought Robin…”

            Damian frowned at his tone and crossed his arms. “Is that a problem?”

            Superboy towered over him and got into his face. “Aren’t you a ray of sunshine?” He said sarcastically.

            Before Damian could draw his sword and skewer the insolent clone, Tim grabbed the clone’s arm and dragged him aside to talk. He wasn’t interested in standing around while they bantered like an old couple. Within seconds he made his way down the stairs and into the tower. He debated where to go next when a voice came up from behind him.

            “What are you doing here?” A snarky voice sniped.

            He glanced back and spotted a shorthaired young woman, Bombshell. He read her file in Tim’s contingency hit list. Violent with a short temper, she was a formidable fighter. Then there was her betrayal to the Titans. He should be careful, but he would take his chances.

            “I didn’t know the Titans took in lesbians on their roster.” Damian said smugly. He had nothing against lesbians; heck Batwoman back home was one. He just wanted to see how pissed he could get this traitor.

            “Why you little!” She snapped, her pale skin turned metallic as she slipped into her battle form.

            Damian dodged as she punched the wall behind him. “Aw did I make you mad?” He said childishly if not for the smugness in his voice. He never said he would make the visit peaceful. That’d show Dick to send him away when all he wanted was a peaceful day at home.

            Bombshell roared as she tried to blast him with her energy blasts. “Stand still you brat!”

            He dodged her attacks swiftly, he tucked into a tumble as he rolled out of the way. Bolos were tossed at her person. She easily broke through the binding and continued her attack. “What’s the matter? Can’t take the truth?” He continued to goad her. “Un-cute butch.”

            “I’m going to fucking kill you!” She growled, but before she could blast him again, the alien clone caught her from behind and restrained her movements.

            “Damian.” Tim scolded as he dragged him away from Bombshell. Superboy was left to deal with the short-tempered young woman. “I thought you would behave, what was that?”

            “I never said I was going to come peacefully.” The shorter Robin retorted.

            “Photos Damian, don’t forget I still have the rest of them. Can you at least try to be civil?” Tim rubbed the side of his temple.

            “Are you going to let me roam without you trailing behind my every step?” Damian countered.

            “Can I trust you not to cause another conflict?”

            “Do you trust me?”

            Tim was silent for a moment. “I want to trust you, but you’re not making it very easy. If you don’t like it that much, we could go home after tonight, but not before you make an effort to try to get along with other people here. You managed it in Gotham U. What’s so different about trying it here?”

            Damian crossed his arms and glanced up to the ceiling briefly. “I want to have one day off from everything to do what I want without question, even if that day is a school day. Agree and I’ll try what you’re asking.”

            “No more fighting with the other titans and no goading them either?” Tim asked.

            “And no trailing after me while we’re here.” Damian added.

            “Agree to meet everyone later civilly and you have a deal.”

            “Done.” Damian said without a complaint. That single day would be useful for him for when his brother’s death day came again. There was no way he would be able to tolerate the nonsense Tim and fat girl puts him through on that day.

            Once he got Tim off his back, he decided to raid each and every room of the titans. Sure, the files told him plenty about these people, but he preferred a more hands on approach. However, not even five rooms in, he found himself a stalker. At first he thought it was Tim, but after a moment he realized it was the clone. Tim wouldn’t be so sloppy.

            “Stop following me.” He paused in mid-step and glanced behind him.

            Superboy casually strolled behind him. “I’m not following you, I just so happen to walk in the same direction.”

            Miffed, Damian tried another approach. “Your boyfriend Drake is on the other side of the tower. You can go molest him.” He said snidely.

            “What? Jealous?” The other said cheekily.

            Damian gave him the odd eye, surprised at his counter, but he paid little heed to him as he continued to raid the other titans’ rooms. He expected the clone to pick a fight and tell him he shouldn’t invade other people’s privacy, but he did nothing of the sort.

            Instead, the other just followed and watched him quietly. Damian had no clue what the clone was thinking or doing. It felt a bit unnerving, but he couldn’t pick a fight with him since he promised Tim he’d behave. His exploration continued through the tower and it eventually brought him to the training room.

            By far, the training room was the most interesting room he found. Diaries and whatnots bored him compared to the excitement of battle and a chance to use his skills. A module caught his eyes when he found the hologram generator.

            Sure the cave back home had the latest and greatest money could buy, but even then he couldn’t generate an image of his father and brother. They were simply not in the program… but both his father and brother visited the tower on a number of occasions. Maybe…

            “Are you interested in trying?” The clone’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

            Damian took a step back from the controls. “…Can you get anyone onto these holograms?”

            The other tilted his head curiously. “Sure, who do you have in mind?”

            Damian looked away, almost embarrassed to say it out loud. “My father and brother.”

            Superboy looked surprised, but he said nothing as he moved to the controls and typed in the commands. The room glowed for a moment before the familiar figures of his father and brother appeared. His heart clenched at the sight of them. He wanted to reach out to touch them, but he knew if he tried, his hand would simply pass through.

            He has to accept the fact that they were both dead, but he couldn’t let it go. He wanted them back. He steeled himself from showing emotions. He won’t show weakness to outsiders.

            “Enough…” He whispered after staring at his father and brother so longingly. He needed to vent he needed to avenge them. “Get rid of them and make Jason Todd.”

            Without a word, Superboy brought up the hateful former Robin to sight, but glanced to him questioningly “What are you—”

            Damian interrupted him. “When I kill it, re-spawn him.” He ordered as he drew his sword and charged violently at the hologram.

            One after another, he decapitated Todd, skewered him over a hundred times, and chopped off limbs left and right. He had done it so quickly, that the system had trouble re-spawning them. Eventually, the Todd holograms were spawned more than one at a time. He soon found an army against him. He wasn’t sure how long he went on, but he knew that even after destroying so many of them, he still couldn’t calm him heart and soothe his anger.

            Fatigue overcame him when he decapitated the last of the Todds and the program turned off. He felt himself kneeling forward in exhaustion and quickly thrust his blade into the ground to support himself up. He won’t show weakness. He won’t embarrass himself.

            Superboy came up to him with a smile after the ordeal. “You want to take a break in my room?”

            What kind of offer was that? Damian scoffed. He withdrew his blade and sheathed it in its proper place. “I’m not your boyfriend. Go find Drake to share a bed with you.”

            He had enough of this tower. There was nothing worthwhile here.

o.o.o.o.o

            By the time evening came, Damian had returned to Gotham with Tim in toll. Exhausted from the Todd slaughter, he slept the whole way back, not noticing Superboy passing them twice. Little did they know, the other had gone to Gotham and back to pick up a certain Batboy and brought him to the tower.

            “Who came to visit the tower today?” Terry asked as he noticed the Batwing passed them. He was under the invisible cloaking in his suit as he held onto Conner.

            “Tim and your brother.” Conner answered truthfully.

            “Did any of you…” He trailed off dangerously.

            “No, no! No one said anything about you. We didn’t let anything slip.”

            Terry look pleased for the moment and resumed his silence as they flew back to the tower.

            “But you know… Your brother had a strange request when he was in the training room.” Conner commented. “He wanted to see you and your dad when he stumbled onto the hologram module.”

            “And?” Terry said dryly, he showed no interest in the manner as they flew into Conner’s room through the window.

            “I’m just saying…” Conner trailed off as he followed him down to his room.

            Terry turned off his cloaking device and strolled to his workstation. With a few taps he managed to pull up the footage of Damian onto the screen. His brother showed no emotion as he stared at their father and a miniature version of himself. His fellow project was happy that he even bothered to look at the footage. His brother’s face steeled warding off any attempt to read his thoughts, at least until he said to rid of the hologram and call up Jason. He saw a hint… of something.

            “Look!” Conner pointed at Damian. “He really misses you and your father there.”

            Terry looked skeptical for a moment before the slaughter of Jason holograms appeared. His brother has gained some sort of hatred against the former Robin more so than what he had against him from when they first met.

            “I think he’s really upset that Jason killed you.” Conner commented.

            Terry held back a snort. That was an understatement. He continued to watch until Conner offered him a place in his room. His fellow project shifted uncomfortably as he set an eye on him, he would deal with him later.

            “There’s really no reason for you to avoid them now right? Your brother’s changed. He won’t hurt you.” Conner said cheerfully.

            Terry hummed for a moment as he rewound the clips and watched it over again. “He’s grown…but not enough.” 

 


	9. Gotham High

            His name was Colin Wilkes. He was an orphan at the St. Aden’s Orphanage.  He was terrified of bats, closed spaces and abandonment, but his worse fear now was probably his own strength. Strength he gained from being tormented and experimented on. He was kidnapped and used by Scarecrow against the greatest hero he ever met, Batman.

            At first he was terrified of the man, terrified at the sight of a huge bat. He attacked, he maimed, he did everything he could to harm the dark knight, but the man did nothing to against him. Instead, he did whatever he could to save him, to help him. He even got his teddy bear Rory back for him.

            The hospital and Wayne Enterprises worked to return him back to normal, but something unexpected happened. He was still able to access the monstrous form the venom granted him. With this he decided to follow in the footsteps of Batman.

            He started his attack against petty crimes as Abuse before eventually he stumbled across a trail of children corpses and found an illegal children fighting ring ran by Zsasz. He met Damian and there he found the temperamental young man was the new Robin, Batman’s prodigy. He wouldn’t say they became the best of friends, but they were friends at least right? Either that or Damian was more generous than his grumpy self showed. He gave him a gift, a motorcycle of all things, geared with weapons and all the works. That was six years ago, now he was sixteen and in his second year of high school.

           “Move it loser!” A rough hand shoved him into a wall of lockers.

           Colin grimaced as he braced himself. He tried his best not to let the venom rise in his blood. If he turned into Venom here, it would be a pain to hide. How do Damian and Batman do it? How do they keep their skills in check and keep the public from realizing who they were? Thinking back on Damian, he decided the current violent wonder was not a good example. The Wayne heir acted no different from his night persona.

            He waited until the bullies passed before he pushed himself up and away from the lockers. He clapped his clothes clean mildly miffed that he had to keep his strength in check. Colin sighed as he picked up his dropped books.

            “Are you okay?” A soft voice asked as he spotted a pair of caramel colored legs and the end of a dress helm before him.

            He glanced up and found a worry set of green eyes. He felt his heart flutter as she knelt down and helped him. It was Rose, the girl of every guy’s dream in the school. The nicest, sweetest—er… not that he was interested in her that way. He had someone else in mind… not that he had a choice with him either. 

            “I’m fine.” He flushed in embarrassment as she handed him the rest of his books. She was a good few inches taller than him and it was hard not to see her as an older sister or a mother even.

            “I should really give them a stern talking to.” She crossed her arms as she glanced towards the bullies. 

            Colin laughed sheepishly as he waved away her concern. “It’s all right, you don’t have to.” He didn’t want to draw attention to himself, much less getting the nicest girl in school in trouble with the wrong crowd.

            “Rose!” A shorthaired blonde ran up to them and latched herself onto Rose’s arm. “So there you are. You left without me this morning!”

            “That’s because you’re a big sleepy head, Rosalie. I bet sister Mary had to wake you up again.” The girl smiled at her.

            “UGH!” Colin jumped at the other girl’s reaction. “Rose I told you for years to stop calling me that! Call me Ro!”

            “Why? You don’t like to be called Rose? Rosalie? Rosie?” Rose giggled as the other girl continued to flail at her childishly.

             Colin smiled and quietly stepped away from the two. It was nice to see them so relaxed and joking with one another. He knew they were both orphans just the same as him. They were all close to their legal age. Soon they would have to leave their orphanages and make a life on their own, but how, he was still worried about that himself. Hopefully, they would be able to figure it out on their own. 

o.o.o.o.o

              The two Ivys stopped their banter as they watched Colin leave. Rose grinned with an amused chuckle.

              “He’s so adorable. It’s hard to believe he has some dealings during the night.” Rose rested a hand on her chin.

              “How can you tell?” Ro crossed her arms and leaned back with mild interest.

              “Didn’t you notice earlier? He was trying to hold back from responding to those bullies.” Rose commented.

              “Well, I saw that.” Ro commented.

Terry had trained them well, not a day could they go through without noticing something around them. Ro and the other Ivys have shared a class with Colin at least once in the last two years and out of trained habit, they noticed the boy was peculiar. He was covered in bruises and always asleep in class. Rarely did they find him without injuries or exhaustion. There were no signs of drug use and the injuries seemed too severe to be from bullies.

              “Well, whatever he’s doing, I hope he’ll be fine. He’s such a sweet boy.” Rose sighed as she adjusted the strap to her bag. She was about to leave for class when she realized Ro was no longer at her side. The tanned girl gave a huff as she shook her head. “Where did she run off to now?”

              Little did Rose know, Colin had peaked Ro’s interest and she was more than excited to stalk the quiet boy. She followed him a good part of the day without him realizing he gained a stalker. That alone should have made her happy, but she was bored to tears. He did nothing of interest in school. He was mediocre in class, clumsy in gym and he had no interest in extra curricular activities.

              With how bored she was, she hadn’t realized someone was trailing after her. By the time she noticed, a hard limb was latched around her torso. She could barely scream as she struggled against her captor.

o.o.o.o.o

              Class was the only time Colin could sleep. Being a night crusader meant his nights were used to hunt down criminals and doing homework. Sleep was second priority if he wanted to keep his grades up and protect Gotham at the same time. At least he had the Cycle of Abuse from Damian to thank for the time he saved in traveling.

              He could count all the classes he managed to stay awake in with a single hand. Scratch that, on a single finger and that was phys ed. He needed to stay awake long enough to dodge the incoming balls.

              By the time school ended, he was well rested and ready to repeat the whole cycle again. At least that was what he thought when he heard the scream. He made a hasty dash to the source and found Ro in the grip of… Ro? The hell? She glanced at him briefly before she pounced away in an inhumane manner. He had no time to get his ride, but the least he could do was change to abuse and chase after them.

              Within moments, he lost Ro to her imposter. Even so, he was no quitter. He made his way back to the garage Damian bought for him and grabbed his ride to her down street by street, block by block. It doesn’t seem like he would be able to patrol tonight, but hell be damned if he was going to let her go.

o.o.o.o.o

              Ro pinned herself against the wall as the robot with her face dropped her into a room. It frisked her and took away the emergency phone Terry had given to each of them for such occasions.

              “What do you want?” She asked, terrified, but the robot said nothing as it left a paper bag on the floor and left through the only exit in what seemed like a storage unit. “Wait!” Ro tried running to the exit, but the gate closed. She was locked from the outside world. She banged the gates, metal clattered against metal. “Let me out!”

              She struggled for ten minutes, but there was no one to her rescue. She sighed dejectedly and picked at the paper bag the robot left. Much to her surprise, she found a sandwich at the bottom with a bottle of water.

              “…What kind of a kidnapper is this guy?” Ro said in annoyance as she set the sandwich aside.

             She was not sure how long she would be here and she was far from hungry. No need to waste the only food source she has now. She searched about the seemingly empty warehouse. If she was a prisoner, she would be a prisoner with a weapon. In her search she found a sturdy pipe. With a few test swings, she weighed the heftiness of the weapon and kept it close as she banged on the gates again, hoping someone would hear her.

             “Somebody! Anybody! Help!” She shouted as she banged.

             One hour, two hours, three, she was tired of yelling, but she kept bashing at the gates wishing someone would come. She stared at the sandwich for a moment before she set her resolve she was not going to give up. The roar of a motorcycle gave her hope as she regained her vigor and banged loudly.

             “Is someone out there? Help!” Ro shouted, she didn’t care whether it was a friend or foe at this point. When thick fingers dug through the gate and ripped it aside a scream escaped from her throat. Maybe she should have wished for a friend.  She raised the pipe and bashed down at the monstrosity in front of her.

             “Ro! I’m not here to—” Bash! “Hurt you!” Bash! “I’m here—” Bash! “To save you!”

             The awkward explanation made her slow her assault, but she kept her distance from the monster. “No offence, but your ugly mug doesn't exactly scream friendly.”

             “Geez.” He rubbed the soreness from the pipe attacks. “I spent hours looking for you!”

 _Hours?_ Ro stared at him for a moment before she realized who it was. It was cute little Colin from school. Except he was an ugly monstrosity now. “So what should I call you anyway? Or should I just call you Colin?”

             The monster before her spluttered in disbelief, it was almost adorable to watch. “A-Abuse! My name is Abuse!” He said hurriedly.

 _Definitely Colin._ Ro thought in amusement. “Well, big guy are you going to sweep this damsel off her feet and save her? Or am I walking home from here?”

             “I have a ride, I can drive you back to the orphanage.” Abuse said.

             “How’d you know I live in an orphanage?” Ro crossed her arms, amusement ran through her veins as her adrenaline rush died.

             “I-uh-I…” His shoulders slumped dejectedly. “Please don’t tell anyone.”

             “Then don’t make it so easy for people to find out. You have to be careful about what you say around people or else you’d expose yourself to worse people! You’re lucky it’s just me and I’m not going to blab!” She winked.

             “Er… thanks?” He murmured sheepishly.

             “And another thing—”

             “Ro!” The familiar voice of her brother drew her attention away from Abuse and towards the door. There she spotted the robot with her battered brother at hand.

             “Casey!” She shouted in horror.

             Abuse looked between her reaction and her brother’s state and decided the robot was the culprit of the whole thing. He was about to charge with his massive arms swinging when Casey stepped between him and the robot.

             “Listen to me, he’s not the one you need to fight against.” He held his arms out protecting the damaged robot. “Zeta’s not bad.”

             “He kidnapped me!” Ro protested.

             “He was trying to get close to me.” Casey interrupted, his eyes kept at Abuse’s massive form.

             Abuse sighed as he looked between the two siblings and the robot. “You better explain to me what happened.


	10. Choices

             Two hours ago, Casey Rowan was in the studio of GCN interning for the _Gotham Tonight_ show trying to pave a way for himself into the news reporting profession. After Terry sat through an advisement session with him, he thought long and hard on what career path to take. With No Man’s Land in his past, news was what he craved for when he wasn’t worried about survival. He wanted to know why it happened, why they were suffering and why no one cared.

            He was set on becoming a reporter and he was not interested in petty paparazzi work. He wanted to do some good with his reporting and he had practice. He was in the middle of editing video clips for a news segment when a familiar voice caught his attention.

            “Casey!” He glanced away from the computer and found his little sister standing stiffly at the door. A frown crossed his face, something was wrong.

            “I need you to broadcast something for me. It’s important that we get it out as soon as possible.” She said with urgency, but he noted she didn’t touch his arm to beg him nor were there worried wrinkles etched on her youthful face.

            “What exactly is so important? You know I don’t have authorization to do that.” He lied. If he wanted to he could start up the broadcast behind his boss’s back and if this person really were his sister, he would’ve done it in a heartbeat. “Can you tell me what’s going on Rosalie?”

            “We don’t have time! You have to trust me.” She begged.

            Casey’s eyes narrowed. “Why should I?”

            “I’m your sister.” She retorted.

            He stood from his seat and circled around her. “You’re not my sister.”

            “Of course I’m your sister who else—”

            “My sister would’ve blown a fuse when I called her Rosalie.” He interrupted. “You’re _not_ my sister.”

            The imposter stood still for a moment before reaching out to grab him. Casey tried to dodge the copy’s hand, but then it extended and latched onto him. The firm coldness reminded him of metal. Casey struggled against the other’s hold as she drew him closer.

             “Listen to me. You must warn your people. A plague is coming and it’ll destroy you all.”

             “What are you?” Casey struggled against him. “And stop using my sister’s face!”

             “My default appearance may startle you. Please you must—”

             “Project Zeta!” A harsh voice shouted out. “Release the civilian!”

             “The NSA…” The imposter, Zeta murmured. “I apologize Casey, but please do warn your people of the plague to come.” Zeta released him before the holographic image disappeared. In Ro’s place was a robot and it fled from the scene as an onslaught of bullets fired at him.

             Casey hasn’t a clue to what this robot was talking about, but that thing knew him well enough to know how his sister looked like. He needed to make sure Ro was fine. Casey ducked to safety and circled the office to another exit. With the direction the robot took off in, he could intercept him before he got far. National Security Agency be damned, his sister came first, whatever government scheme this was would have to wait.

              It didn’t take him long with his familiarity of the studio. He found the robot and quickly urged him to follow him. “This way.”

              Zeta asked no questions as he followed Casey through the maze of hallways and staircases, but to save time, the robot took Casey and launched himself down the flights and flights of stairs.

              “You know how to get out from here?” Casey asked as he clenched onto the smooth metallic surface of the robot.

              “Yes.” Zeta replied.

              “What is Project Zeta? They were calling you that.” He asked as Zeta crashed through the door and hurried down the street. Casey winced at the debris that hit them.

              “I’m an infiltration unit created from Project Zeta. Reconnaissance and assassinations are part of my programming.” His robotic voice echoed.

              “Assassinations! Where is my sister!” Casey snapped.

              “Miss Rosalie is safe.” Zeta replied as he jumped over cars and darted into the alleyway. “I left her in a safe location.”

              “Why did you kidnap her? What do you want with me?” He asked.

              “I’m here to warn you and your people. A plague is coming and it’s likely that it would kill off your people unless something is done.”

              “Why me? Why not tell those NSA people that’s chasing you? Heck, why not anyone else?” Casey asked as they bounded onto rooftops. 

              “They believe I am defective and would not listen to reason.” Zeta explained. “I stumbled upon this information during a mission. A group named Kobra is planning to release a plague in an attempt to rid the world of anyone that does not fit to their vision.”

              “That still doesn’t explain why you chose me.” Casey grounded out.

              “You are different. I came to the station in hopes of convincing them that a plague is upon them, but no one was willing to listen. You were different. You thirst for the truth.”

              “So you kidnapped my sister?” He snapped.

              “It was the only way to get close without suspicion.”

              “Take me to her now.” Casey demanded.

              “But the NSA—”

               "We’ll deal with them when they come, take me to my sister.”

               “…Very well…” Zeta replied as they took off to the warehouses.

Now…

               “Can you tell me where Kobra is?” Abuse asked.

               “I’m afraid that I do not know where their headquarters is situated.” Zeta replied regrettably.

               “What are you planning?” Ro asked when Abuse became quiet.

               "You guys hide Zeta.” He started.

               “Hide him?” Ro said in disbelief. “How? Just look at him! He’s a freaking robot!”

               “He can disguise himself.” Casey interrupted and turned to Zeta. “You imitated my sister earlier, can you create any image?”

               Zeta said nothing as he shifted to different images for them to see.

               “No, no! You have to mix and match! If you just walk out looking like someone else, they’ll spot you a mile away.” Casey reasoned.

               “Like this?” Zeta asked as he sorted through the images and landed on a pale-skinned young man with a beard and mustache.

               “The beard and mustache look is out of style and waaay too conspicuous. Lose it.” Ro ordered offhandedly, seeming to have forgotten that it was this same robot that kidnapped her just hours prior.

                With ease, Zeta removed the facial hair from his disguise and Ro gave a hum of approval.

               “You should have a name too. Calling you Zeta everywhere would be a dead give away too.” Ro hummed in thought. “How about Zee?”

               “That is acceptable.” Zeta replied.

               “And you have to stop talking like that.” Casey inserted. “You’re way too proper. Try using words like sure, no problem, whatever.”

                Abuse watched them only a moment longer before he made his move towards the door. “So you guys can handle this right?”

               “And where do you think you’re going?” Ro asked.

               “To get help.” Abuse explained. “If there’s something as big as a plague coming, we should try to get as much help as we could.”

               “Like who? It’s not like we have Batman on call or the Justice League.” Ro crossed her arms.

               Abuse spluttered. “I-I’ll find a way somehow! You just worry about Zee! I’ll see you!” He hurried out of the warehouse.

               The three waited until Abuse was gone before another word was spoken. “What now? Where are we going to hide him?” Ro asked.

               Casey sighed as he looked between his sister and the humanoid robot. “First things first, we need to get out of here before the NSA finds this place. It’s not going to be easy, but I think we’ll be able to handle it.”

               “I hear a but coming on.” Ro frowned.

               “The hard part is hiding him from Terry and this so call plague that’s coming. We need to warn him but…”

               “He’s going to get suspicious to how we got the information.” Ro ended. “You’re right… this is going to be hard.”


	11. Life

            It has been two years since Terry started his tutelage under Cassandra. While he was far from matching with the likes of Jason, he was now able to see what he couldn’t before. Who was truly strong and who was weak. Cassandra had the habit of taking in the weak and the helpless as her students. With one exception.

             Zander.

             From the start, he could see the regal mannerisms only the privileged shared. Not far from how Damian acted. It wasn’t like Cassandra to take in bigots under her wing, but he doubted it was because of money. Money meant little to her and she could barely grasp the concept without him there to explain it.

             “Cassandra, why did you take him in?” Terry asked one night after all the students were gone.

             “You cannot see it?” She asked quietly.

             “See what?” He asked.

             She looked at him with sadden eyes. “He shares our fate.”

             Terry pried no further. He opted to find out for himself what she meant. He followed Zander under the invisibility of his costume. From there he found the organization Kobra, a terrorist group. He dared not to risk his cover by following, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t find more on Zander. Just by watching the people around him, he could tell Zander was highly respected, but at the same time it looked like he was being used.

             “Master Zander, I hear your classes are going quite well.”

             Terry listened intently from his hidden alcove.

             “As expected.” Zander shrugged.

             “You are as we expected, once your training is over, you will lead our people to glory.”

             “Of course.” Zander replied dutifully. His voice drone mechanically and his eyes looked listless.

             That was what Cassandra meant. Zander was born into servitude just as they were, bred and rose as weapons, as leaders. It was no wonder the former Batgirl was so willing to take him in. She saw herself in his situation. Since then he made an effort to attend any and all classes Zander were present. Who was he to deny Cassandra’s wish to free him?

              “… Begin!” Cassandra strikes down her hand to commence the spar.

              Terry slipped into his standard stance across from Zander. Both were evaluating one another before Terry took the first attack. Quick on his feet, he charged at the other with a punch. Zander caught his wrist and promptly tossed him over his shoulder. From the momentum Terry twisted himself in the air as he landed on the mat with a slide. He was given no chance to recover as Zander delivered a roundhouse kick, clipping his shoulder and knocking him to the ground. Not a moment later he drove a fist at Terry’s face.

              “Enough!” Cassandra stopped him seconds before the fist connected. “Well done Zander.” She turned to Terry with a curious eye, but kept her questions to herself. Terry performed poorly compared to his usual bouts with Jason.

              Terry propped up on his arms lazily on the mat. “You’re really something aren’t you Zander? I’ve been taking these classes for sometime already and I’ve never seen someone as good as you.”

              Zander preened. “You’re just a poor student that's all. It’s obvious Master Cassandra saw my potential.”

              _Definitely arrogant._ Terry’s smile never wavered. “So what does a guy your stature do for fun? It must be pretty schway.”

             “…Schway?” Zander raised a brow.

             “You know, cool, awesome, the works. So what do you do?” Terry asked.

             “I train and study as I should. After all, I am the heir to the family business.” Zander said smugly.

             “… That’s all?” Terry was not impressed. “You don't do anything fun at all.”

             “Fun?” The stiff young man questioned. “What is this fun you speak of?”

             Terry slowly pulled himself up from the mats and clapped himself clean. “Arcades, pizza, stuff to relax and not have to worry about. A break.”

              Zander looked thoughtful.

              “I could show you if you want.” Terry offered. “Just try it. I’m sure you’d find it enjoyable.”

              “I’m on a strict schedule.”

              “I’m sure Master Cassandra won’t spill to your babysitters about us going out for one class.” He glanced a Cassandra expectantly.

              Her brows rose slightly, but she understood. “Go with him.”

              Zander didn’t need much convincing, he was already interested. No doubt from the lack of life from his strict regime, but as confident as Terry was that life away from a controlling force was better. He had no confidence in showing him the best. The Ivys would be preferred for such a job.

o.o.o.o.o

              Damian raced through corridor after corridor of the school with practiced ease. Unfortunately, his pursuers shared the same familiarity.

              “You can run Wayne, but you can’t hide!” Max’s voice echoed cheerily.

              “Tt.” Damian ticked in annoyance, but he made no retort as he hurried out of the school and down the block.

              He couldn’t afford to blow up on her and Jared less he wanted to lose access to his only source of information on his little brother. It wasn’t that they were bad company. They were surprisingly tolerable about his foul temper and cynical persona. Had it been anyone else, they wouldn’t have put up with his nonsense. 

              It was nearly nine in the evening. Max and Jared wanted to drag him out for their weekly pizza night. The nights he dreaded the most. It was as if they were doing this on purpose to torture him. Pizza was his kryptonite, his greatest weakness. Never once had he been able to enter a pizza establishment without getting sick.

              “Damian!” A familiar voice distracted him for a second.

              He turned to the source and much to his surprise he found a ginger-headed young man waving a frantic hand at him. “Colin.” He quickly turned his heel and towards him.

              Colin caught his arm as he neared. “Listen Damian, I need to talk to you.”

              “In a moment. There are two people coming around the corner in a moment. One with pink hair. If they ask, tell them you never saw me.” Damian said in a hurry before he peeled his hand off and disappeared into an alleyway.

              “But…” Colin wasn’t able to protest. Within moments the girl with pink hair appeared and approached him.

              “Hey kid, did you see a stuck up young man with black hair and blue eyes? He ran towards this direction like a while ago.” She said as another followed up behind her in exhaustion.

              “M-Max…” He huffed desperately. “Do we have to do this every week? You know he doesn’t like pizza.”

              Colin smiled sheepishly; he didn’t know Damian hated pizza. “Sorry, I don’t think I saw anyone like that.”

              Max sighed in disappointment before her phone rang. “Thanks kid.” She said as she answered her phone. “Yeah Ter?”

              “No problem.” Colin replied as she dragged her friend along with her. He waited until they were long gone before he dared to shout at the alleyway. “They’re gone Damian!”

              In seconds he Damian descended from the fire escape cautiously.

              “I didn’t know you hate pizza.” Colin commented casually as his friend neared.

              “Don’t even mention that dreadful thing.” Damian grumbled. He cautiously looked about in case his classmates still lingered.

              Colin held back a laugh.

              “So what did you want to talk to me about?” Damian asked once he was certain they would not return.

              “Oh!” Colin turned serious as he latched onto Damian’s hand and dragged him along. “Can’t tell you in the open. It’s a serious thing.”

              Damian made no protest as he allowed the younger boy drag him along. He was the preferred alternative to pizza hell. 

o.o.o.o.o

              “Max!” Terry waved a hand as he spotted his fellow Ivys approach.

              Zander made a face with his arms crossed. “You made me wait for these peasants?”

              Jared raised a brow. “Where did you find Wayne number two?”

              “Pardon?” Zander frowned.

              Terry jabbed Jared playfully. “He’s just kidding. So!” He waved a hand towards to introduce each of them. “Zander this is Max and Jared, Max and Jared this is Zander.  He’s new in town so let’s show him a fun time okay?”

              Both Max and Jared gave him the eye. It wasn’t like him to put up such a cheery persona, something was up, but they weren’t about to blow his cover either. He wanted them to help him with this young man that oddly resemble their Gotham prince, albeit their prince was more pleasant.

              “What’s up Ter? Why are we entertaining this stuck up S-O-B?” Jared asked while Max owned the other in a shooting game and rubbed it in his face. 

              “You entertained Damian Wayne with no problem. What’s the difference with Zander? He’s just a misguided little prince that’s all.” Terry defended.

              “Oh yeah! Who’s the man? I’m the wo-man! I beat your pasty little white ass! Whoo!” Max cheered as the screen displayed player two’s victory. Terry watched as Zander stood stiffly with a twitching eye while Max did her victory dance.

              Jared sighed as he approached the two. “Don’t feel bad, she’s like that all the time. You did pretty well for a beginner.”

              “I don’t need your sympathy! I demand a rematch!” Zander snarled, but it seemed like he was enjoying himself.

              Max laughed, the toy gun twirled in her hand. “Bring it on rich boy. I’ll take you on any time.”

              Terry watched as they introduced Zander to the world of teens and the food of poor. Zander was in the middle of trying his first pizza when a rude hand shoved him from behind. The cheesy slice slapped onto the front of his pristine clothes.

              “Aw, ain’t that a pity? Rich boy’s clothes are dirty.” A group of delinquents surrounded them. One even dared to invade Zander’s personal space by shoving his face in front of his. “What are you going to do about it rich boy?”

              “Get out of my face vermin.” He was about to throw a punch when Max grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back.

              “Don’t.” Max warned him. “He’s not worth it.”

              “Sure hide behind your girlfriend.” The other mocked. 

              Terry stepped between them and forced a smile on his face. “Don’t listen to them Zander. Max is right, they’re not worth your time. Why don’t we—”

               Before he could make a suggestion, the delinquents were taken down by men in suits. Terry was pushed aside when they were done. 

               “Young master. You were not at your classes today.” The man was stern.

               Zander said nothing as he looked away.

               Max gave a faint smile as she placed a hand on his shoulder. “We understand if you have to go. It was fun while it lasted right?”

               Zander was escorted away, but not without a glance back to them. A smile crept onto Terry’s face when he saw the seeds of change sowed onto the young heir. Now he just needed to wait and watch the events unfold.

               “Well, since Damian the second can’t come out to play and Damian the first is missing in action, why don’t we Ivys have a night to ourselves?” Jared suggested. “With classes and everything, we haven’t gotten together in a while.”

               Terry grinned. “Sure, why not?  Though Kevin’s not in Gotham right now though, he’s interning at some hospital at Princeton.” 

               “No biggy, we’ll just make up to him the next time he comes home from break. Now let’s round up the gang and party!” Max cheered as she pulled out her cell to gather up the Ivys.

                Not many managed to come, but it was odd to see Casey and Ro act strange when they met up. He noted a young man following them discreetly. They tried to make it look like he wasn’t part of their group, but failed poorly against Terry’s superior eye to detail.

                “Who’s your friend over there?” Terry asked when they started to fidget.

                “What do you mean?” Casey attempted to keep his tone innocent, but failed.

                “Forget it Casey, he’s onto us.” Ro said dejectedly. “We were going to have to tell you eventually anyway. Zee! Come over here!”

                “Zee?” Terry raised a brow as he watched the newcomer approach.

                “Are we to go now?” Zee asked as he approached. His tone was monotonous, his face was stiff, and something didn’t feel right.

                “And what exactly do you have to tell me?” Terry asked.

                “A plague is coming upon your people.”

                Terry’s smile faltered for a second. “This is a joke right?”

                “Zeta’s not joking. This may sound ridiculous, but he’s a robot.” Casey whispered. “We’re trying to hide him from the NSA but…”

                 Zeta… Zeta… Project Zeta… Dr. Eli Selig… Crap…

                “Tell me about—no, not here.” Terry said seriously. If he recalled correctly, Zeta was a recon robot. If what he said was true, Gotham was in trouble. “Let’s go to my place first, then tell me about the plague.”

                 The Ivys dispatched. Terry made his way back to his apartment with the trio. Zeta gave a full report on the situation and the severity that was to come.

                 “You two are idiots.” Terry sighed after the debriefing. Casey and Ro flinched. “Did you even think that there was a possibility that he was lying?”

                 “But he’s not!” Ro protested.

                 “Think Ro, Zeta is government property. Even if he’s not lying, what do you think would happen if they find out you’re harboring him like a wanted criminal? Think for a second would you?”

                 “But the plague—” Casey protested.

                 “Should be handled by someone capable, not by kids barely out of school.” Terry reasoned.

                 “But Abuse is on it. He said he was going to get help.” Ro argued.

                 “Abuse?” Terry frowned. He doesn’t know anyone by the name Abuse. Never mind that, he could always ask Jason about it if worse comes to worse. “Then someone is on it. Stay out of this.”

                 “But Ter, this is Gotham we’re talking about. Our home! How can we just stand by and do nothing?” Casey grounded out.

                 “Something will be done.” He assured them. “Just not by you. Listen, trust me. Gotham will be protected. Just stay out of this.”

                 “What about Zee?” Ro asked. “What do we do about him? The government thinks he went rogue, if they get their hands on him they’ll…”

                 Terry placed a hand on Ro’s shoulder comfortingly. “I’ll handle it. Zeta can stay with me for the time being.”

                 “But…”

                 “Do you trust me?” Terry said gently. The brother and sister nod silently. “Then relax. I’ll handle everything.”

                 “What should we tell the others? With the plague and…” Ro looked worried.

                 Terry sighed. “Give them a heads up, but say nothing about Zeta, they don’t need to know more than necessary. Just make sure everyone takes care of themselves until this passes. I’ll handle the rest. Go home and relax. Okay?”

                 “Ter knows what he’s doing Ro. Let’s just go.” Casey said as he gently pulled his sister from Terry.

                 “Okay…” Ro’s shoulder slumped before she followed her brother out.

                 Once they were gone Terry turned to Zeta with a firm stare and sighed through his nose. “First thing’s first. Change your appearance. Auburn hair, green eyes, 5’7, worn middle-aged man. You’re going to hide as Warren McGinnis for now. Given no one seen him before you’ll be fairly safe hiding as him.”

                 Zeta looked about the small apartment before nodding. “Thank you Project Beyond.”

                 A chill went up Terry’s spine before he turned to Zeta with widen eyes. He backed away from Zeta, did Cadmus send him after him? Was this all a ruse to get close?

                 “Don’t be alarmed Project Beyond. I merely deduced whom you were by your voice and your intellectual reasoning.”

                 “…You’re not here to take me back?” He asked cautiously.

                 “Negative.”

                 “What are your plans now? If the NSA captured you, you’re as a good as scrap.” Terry noted.

                 “What’s most important now is the safety of your people. My situation can be remedied at a later time.”

                 “…Have you gained sentience?” Terry asked.

                 Zeta paused and tilted his head. “Sentience… I am not certain… but I do wish to speak with Dr. Selig if I could. There are so many questions I would like to ask him.”

                 Terry cupped a hand over his mouth as his mind frantically tried to make sense of the situation. They have a plague on their hands and a possible terrorist invasion. What could he do? What should he do? Should he notify the family and have them prepare and assist? But that would mean blowing his cover. He couldn’t go about this on his own, he wasn’t skilled enough or capable of handling this on only his manpower.

                 Think! What are his options? What are his resources? Terry paused when a solution finally came to him. Quickly grabbing his phone he made a quick call.

                “Jason how unwilling are you to speak with the family?”


End file.
